A Hint of Change
by celestial lelila
Summary: Sometimes it just takes a hint of change to start a whole series of events. How will Ranma react when Akane decides to be friends with Mousse, and how will everyone else deal with it? R
1. Let's Be Friends

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Ranma. If I did, this wouldn't be a fanfic, now would it?

_AN: Just to let you know, this is my first fanfic ever. The first chapter is kind of long but I couldn't really think of anywhere in the story where I wanted to stop it. I have no idea if the other chapters will be anywhere near as long. To warn you, I don't think I'll be able to update this on a regular basis but I do promise to finish this story. Please review and let me know if it'll be worth my effort to do so._

Akane Tendo sat at her desk staring out of her window. It was morning and she had already gone on her morning jog, bathed and had just finished getting dressed for school. She had woken up earlier than usual and had a just a few minutes to herself before Kasumi would call her to come downstairs for breakfast. Her much enjoyed peace was soon broken by a the call of a certain male voice.

"Heeeya! You're too slow, Old Man!" Ranma Saotome yelled out as he and his father traded blows in their usual morning sparring.

"You're getting too soft, Boy!" Genma yelled back just Kasumi began to call everyone that breakfast was over. And Genma, being the great martial artist that he was, used the distraction to land a blow into Ranma's gut and knock him into the koi pond.

"What'd ya do that for?!" Yelled Ranma-chan.

Akane watched all this in mild interest and wondered exactly when she had gotten so used to the chaos that had entered her life so that morning battles were no longer a surprise to her. In fact she would be mildly worried if there were no morning sparring between Ranma and his father. She couldn't ever complain about having a boring life but exciting was really the only way she could describe her life Akane suddenly realized. It wasn't a sad life with her family, who although they were a bit controlling it was not for a lack of love. Akane could not say she had a happy life though and she was suddenly sobered by that thought. Why wouldn't she be happy?

"Akane, breakfast is ready!" Kasumi called out in her gentle motherly voice.

"Coming, Kasumi!" Akane called back and raced down the stairs. She took her usual seat beside Ranma and saw that he was still slightly wet from having been dipped into the pond and from then having a tea kettle poured over him to change him back into a boy. She grabbed her bowl of rice and began to slowly eat her breakfast.

Ranma as usual was quickly stuffing his mouth full when he was not guarding his bowl from his father's table training exercises. He briefly glanced over at Akane and wondered why she had not said anything yet. The thought was soon pushed out of his mind as his father was able to steal a bit of his food and Ranma went to steal it back.

Akane barely finished half of her bowl but set it down and stood up. "I'm heading out now." She announced and went to grab her school case and put on her shoes. Ranma finished eating his breakfast even faster than before and quickly stood up. He grabbed his school bag as he hurriedly put on his shoes and ran after her. As Akane calmly walked to school Ranma walked along the fence and every so often stole glances over to her. He did not know what to make of Akane at all. She had not a said a word during breakfast like she normally did commenting on his bad table manners. They had not a fought over Ranma calling her a tomboy. She had not sent him Air Akane. Ranma did not know whether he should be relieved at the peaceful turn of the day or worried. As he continued to watch her he noticed that Akane seemed to be deep in thought and suddenly had a panicky feeling that he should be terribly worried.

Just then the "ching, ching" of a bell rang out and Ranma steeled himself for the attack. He briefly thought about simply dodging the predictable attack but then pushed the thought out of his mind. Running away usually caused more problems ending in a long chase and he simply did not have time for that. Ranma did not at all feel like doing bucket duty this morning. As expected the Chinese ramen girl glomped him in a way that only an Amazon could.

"Airen no go to school and take Shampoo on date, yes?" Shampoo called out in her bubbly voice.

"I ain't taking ya no where!" Ranma cried out and began to struggle out of her grip. "I mean, Shampoo, I gotta get ta school."

Ranma glanced over at Akane to see how angry she was getting when he saw that, although she saw Shampoo hugging him, she did not seem to be glowing her usual blue battle aura when seeing something like this. "Akane?" He said softly in fear of incurring any wrath but too curious, or maybe just too stupid even Ranma sometimes didn't even know his reasons, as to why he wasn't keeping his mouth shut.

Akane had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that it was not until Ranma had said her name that she realized what was happening. For a moment Akane could feel her usual anger and temper rearing up and began to pull her fingers into making a fist but realized that there was no point in doing so. Ranma and Mr. Saotome always sparred in the morning and as Akane and Ranma ran to school Shampoo would always glomp him and so on. Things had not changed but Akane's feelings had. Akane had not wanted her feelings to change but they had and she had to find a way to deal with her new realization.

"I'll see you at school, Ranma." Akane simply said with only a slight edge to her voice and continued to walk on.

"Akane?" Ranma asked again.

"Violent girl gone now. Airen give Shampoo kiss now?" Shampoo said as she tried to give him one.

"Not now, Shampoo." Ranma told her as he kept staring at Akane as she continued to walk away from him. Ranma was now seriously worried about his fiancee's behavior and decided to follow her.

"Shampoo, my love! Saotome, unhand her!" Called out an inevitable voice.

It was Mousse and he was charging his way to where Ranma and Shampoo were standing. Ranma decided to the use the blind boy's arrival as his distraction and as Shampoo went to yell for Mousse to leave her alone, he gave her the slip and headed toward school where Akane was, leaving Shampoo and Mousse to their usual chase.

Akane had just walked through the school gates and knocked out Kuno when Ranma had finally caught up to her. It was also at this moment when the school bell rang so if he didn't want to stand in the hall he was going to have to wait til lunchtime to talk to her. Akane sat at her desk as Ranma walked into their homeroom class and took his seat just behind her. Akane already had her notebook out and pen in hand ready to listen to the teacher. Ranma shoved his school bag under his seat and simply stared at whatever was in front of him although every so often he would glance to the left and watch his fiancee. Akane glad to have classes to take her mind off her own thoughts listened carefully to the teacher's lecture and hardly glanced at her forced-upon fiance.

Lunch time rolled around and Ranma grabbed his bento box ready to follow Akane along with everyone else outside where they all ate but Akane didn't seem to be in a hurry at all and took her time putting her things away and getting her bento box out of her school bag. Ranma decided it was probably not a good idea for him to look as if he was waiting for Akane, even if it was what he was indeed doing, and decided the best thing for him to do was go outside and wait for her there. Just as Ranma had stepped out of the doorway and into the school yard he heard the voice of another of his determined fiancees call for him.

"Ran-chan! Let's eat lunch together. I'll cook up some okinamiyaki for us." Ukyo said as she latched herself to Ranma's arm and began to drag him to a grassy area where they could sit.

It was just then that Akane finally walked out of the building and saw Ranma with his other fiancee. She had been feeling a little bit better since taking her mind off her problematic question but her good mood was instantly dissipated when she saw her fiancé with another woman. This time Akane did not even feel her usual anger boiling. She just didn't feel as if it were worth the effort this time around and decided it was best that she should simply eat the lunch that Kasumi had made for her. Akane went to sit with her best friend Sayuri and Yuka at their usual lunch spot under the tree.

Ranma could only stare at Akane as she walked away from him. He was very surprised, and even relieved, that she had not gotten angry at all. It was the second time that day that another of his fiancees had been hanging onto him and she had not even said a word about it to him. He was so stunned that he did not even notice Ukyo was still pulling on him and was now dragging him away. For the rest of the lunch Ranma sat and pondered what could possibly be wrong with Akane while Ukyo tried very hard to please him by chatting cheerily to him and force feeding him one of her freshly made Japanese pizzas. Akane simply sat and talked with her friends. The bell rang and they all went inside for the rest of classes. The rest of school went very much as it had that morning but Ranma stole many more glances than he had earlier. Akane hardly noticed as she concentrated on the teacher's lecture. The school day ended and Ranma grabbed his bag and stood by the classroom's door to wait for Akane so that they could walk home together. Akane walked out of the room last and finally noticed Ranma standing there as if waiting for her.

"Ranma, are you waiting for me?" She asked him.

"No! Of course not!" Ranma said loudly trying to hide his embarrassment at Akane having already figured out his motive. "I just figured since we live at the same house and all that . . ." He couldn't seem to think of a way to finish that sentence that did not confirm her idea.

"OK, Ranma. Let's go home." Akane simply said giving her fiancee a half smile. It was not her full smile but it still had the power to make Ranma's heart skip a beat. Akane had to almost force that smile on her face. She was feeling much better since lunch but was still not totally happy with Ranma.

Ranma was once again walking on the fence just behind Akane as they made their usual route home. He once again started his habit of stealing glances of her without her knowing it as he tried to figure out a way that he could ask her what was bothering her without bring upon himself any of her ire. Then again, Ranma would almost be too glad for Akane to get angry at him. Her too-calm attitude about Shampoo and Ukyo clinging to him earlier had creeped him out just a little bit.

"Akane, are you OK?" He finally blurted out.

"I'm all right, Ranma." Akane answered him looking up at him but before she could elaborate further on her feelings they both heard a "ching, ching" from a certain bike bell.

"Airen! You all done school now and take Shampoo on date now, yes?" Shampoo once again squealed as she launched herself at Ranma for the second time that day.

Akane's eyes lit up with the flames of her anger. She had been preparing herself all day with what she was going to say to Ranma and when she was finally ready to talk to him, one of his insistent fiances just had to show and interrupt before she could even get a word out. If only Ranma would do something about it but it seemed too much to ask for so of course, it was all his fault. Her fingers began to close into the shape of a fist ready to send Ranma Air Akane back to the Tendo dojo but before she could raise her hand another person came crashing toward them at just their usual correct timing.

"Saotome, you will die for putting your hands on my darling Shampoo!" Mousse yelled.

"Mousse, you go home now!" Shampoo yelled letting of Ranma just to give the poor blind boy a good right hook into his jaw, knocking him out and causing him to fall to the ground right in front of Akane.

Akane stared down at the poor boy and gave out a small sigh. She felt sorry for him. She knew exactly how he felt a lot of the time as they were both constantly rejected by the person they strived for attention from. As much as Akane hated to admit it, she did try to do things for Ranma and always hated failing. She knelt down to the ground and lifted Mousse's head up a little.

"Mousse? Can you hear me? Are you OK?" Akane asked him.

Ranma and Shampoo could only stare dumbfounded as they saw Akane trying to take care of Mousse. She had never shown such care toward him before.

"Why Violent Girl be so nice to Blind Boy?" Shampoo sneered at Akane.

"Ughh . . ." Mousse groaned as he started to wake up again and opened his eyes to stare right into the eyes of Akane. "Tendo Akane?"

"Are you OK, Mousse?" Akane simply asked him kindly.

"I am fine." He said as he began to sit up rubbing the back of his head where he had hit the ground and then rubbed his jaw where the girl of his dreams had slugged him a good one.

As he stood up, Akane helped steady him. "That's a pretty bad bump on your head there and on your jaw too. Let me help you take you to Dr. Tofu's office so that he can look at it." Mousse, having a bad headache and very surprised to hear Akane offering to help him, only nodded in answer. "Ranma, I'll meet you at home later." She told him as she grabbed the Chinese boy's arm and began to walk with him down the street toward the clinic.

Shampoo seeing the Violent Girl lead her Duck Boy, without any protest from him, was utterly shocked and convinced herself that it didn't mean a thing to her at all and so she promptly turned around and walked away but she still could not help another glance at the 2 retreating figures. Ranma had simply stood there the entire time with his mouth wide open. It was a full minute after Akane and Mousse had left his sight before he finally came to his senses and decided on what course of action to take. He could follow her and the blind boy as he had when Akane and Ryoga had gone on a date but as those 2 were not actually on a date, Ranma was not up with any excuses as to why he was there with them when he would get caught and Ranma had no disillusions that he would not get caught since luck was never on his side for too long. His other option was to just go home as Akane had suggested. After less than a minute of thought, he decided the safest option was just go home and wait for Akane. After all, they weren't on a date. She was taking him to Dr. Tofu's.

Akane and Mousse arrived in front of the clinic of Dr. Tofu.

"Tendo Akane, why are you helping me?" Asked Mousse.

"Because you are hurt." Akane pointed out the obvious.

Not able to find anything to say against it, Mousse decided to simply go along with her and they walked into Dr. Tofu's office together.

"Dr. Tofu!" Akane called out for the chiropractor.

"Yes, Akane?" The good doctor answered. "What can I do for you today?"

"Dr. Tofu, it's Mousse here. He got knocked out and I think you should take a look at him." Akane explained to the good doctor.

"Well, Mousse have a seat then and I'll take a look at you." Said Dr. Tofu as he adjusted his glasses and then began to do as he said. "It looks like you took a hard hit to your jaw and a slight bump on your head but it's nothing too serious. It'll feel sore for a day or 2 but I'll give you some salve to rub onto it and take any pain away."

"Thank you, Dr. Tofu." Mousse said politely and after taking the small jar he gave a small bow in thanks. "And thank you, Tendo Akane, for your concern."

"It's OK, Mousse." Akane answered back. "Thank you, Dr. Tofu."

"You're welcome, Mousse and Akane. Just take care of yourselves and I'll see you another time." Dr. Tofu called after them as the pair left his clinic.

"Are you sure you're fine, Mousse?" Akane asked him once again as they stood outside out of the clinic.

"I am fine, Tendo Akane." Mousse reassured her. "Allow me to walk you home in gratitude for taking me to Dr. Tofu."

"I can take of myself and I can walk home myself." Akane told him hotly.

"I know that, Tendo Akane. It's just the polite thing of me to do." Mousse told her evenly.

"Well, if that's the case then sure, you can walk me home, Mousse." Akane said letting go one of her dazzling smiles as the 2 began to walk to the Tendo haven.

Mousse could only smile back in the face of such a friendly, cute and even kawaii smile.

The 2 martial artists walked along in quiet company until it was Akane who broke the silence. "Mousse, don't you ever get tired of how Shampoo treats you?"

"I love her and I will endure anything she puts me through to receive her love." Mousse explained to her. "Why do you endure the insults from Saotome Ranma?"

"It's because of our fathers!" Akane said beginning to get charged up with her always impending temper.

"You don't stay with Saotome just because of your fathers though, Tendo Akane." Mousse said. "If your fathers were the only reason, you would not still be engaged to him. You are not easily forced to do what you do not want to do."

Akane promptly shut her mouth. It was true but that didn't mean she had to admit to it and it was never long before she would open her mouth again. "Why do you always try to fight with Ranma though? You know he won't be defeated."

"If I can defeat him then in the eyes of the Amazon's he is not worthy to be Shampoo's husband." Mousse let Akane know. "It's much in the same way that you want to defeat my dear Shampoo."

"I guess we have a few things in common." Akane grudgingly admitted as they stood in front of the Tendo's door. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"I do not want to intrude." Mousse declined very politely.

It was just then that Kasumi called out. "Akane? Is that you?"

"Tadaima, Oneechan!" Akane answered back just as Kasumi opened the door to see where her younger sister was at.

"Oh, what are you doing here, Mousse?" Kasumi asked in surprise.

"He was very kind and walked me home after I took him to see Dr. Tofu, Onee-chan." Akane said.

"Well, then he must stay for dinner." Kasumi told them both as she opened the door wide enough for the both of them to walk through. "It's already at the table and we were just waiting for Akane to come inside."

"But . . ." Mouse started to protest.

"I insist." Kasumi said. No one could ever say no to Kasumi for too long and without another word of argument Mousse found himself being led through the Tendo household and seated at their dinner table.

"What's he doin here?" Ranma yelled out as soon as he saw the white robed Chinese boy.

"Don't be rude, Ranma!" Akane snapped back to her inazuke. "He walked me home after I took him to Dr. Tofu's and Kasumi asked him to stay for dinner."

Kasumi had Mousse sit on the other side of Akane as she began to serve everyone his or her plate of food. As usual Ranma ate his food very quickly while guarding it from his father but all the while he kept sneaking glances to his left as his fiancee kept a running conversation with the boy Amazon. Akane did not completely ignore her fiancé though. She did tell Ranma of his deplorable table manners when the meal first began. Akane was quite glad that Kasumi had asked Mousse to stay for dinner. It was a nice change to have an actual conversation with someone who did not insult her all the time. She had never had a real chance to talk to the Amazon boy before and she found that she actually liked to talk to him. Mousse felt the same way. He found it very enjoyable to talk to someone who did not smack him with her cane or knock him out as soon as he opened his mouth. The 2 covered all sorts of topics but their talk always came back to the subject of martial arts.

"Want to spar?" Akane asked Mousse once dinner was over and the dishes were away.

"Sure." Mousse replied casually. "But I need to call the Nekohaten and tell Colonge that I will be by later to clean the restaurant."

"OK!" Akane said breaking out into smile. "I'll go change while you make your call. Meet you in the dojo."

Akane led Mousse to use the phone and then ran upstairs to change into her gi. After just a few minutes she was running down the stairs when she saw Ranma standing at the bottom of them.

"What do ya want to spar with the blind boy for?" Ranma asked her.

"What do you care, Ranma?" Akane shot back at the pig-tailed boy.

"I don't!" Ranma yelled back defensively.

"Then you don't stand in my way." Akane told him as she barged right by him on her way to the dojo.

As Akane past him Ranma decided that he would watch his fiancee spar so he went and sat by the koi pond where it wouldn't be too obvious to everyone about what he was doing.

"I'm ready!" Akane declared to Mousse as he stood in the middle of the dojo.

"Tendo Akane I won't use my weapons against you since this is just a sparring match." Mousse let her know.

Akane just nodded as he posed herself into a simple fighting stance. As soon as Mousse was ready, Akane launched a series of punches and kickes at him. Mousse dodged and blocked them easily enough and even took some shots at the female martial artists. Akane managed to dodge and block all of them until Mousse dropped into a leg sweep and knocked Akane to the ground. Ranma had watched the entire thing and had the sudden urge to knock the Chinese boy out of the dojo for knocking his fiancee down.

"Are you alright, Tendo Akane?" Mousse asked the small girl as he helped her stand up.

"I'm fine. I'm not made of glass." Akane told him. "You're better than I expected without your weapons, Mousse."

"Thank you, Tendo Akane." Mousse replied simply. "You are not bad either though you could use some practice."

"Yes, I am a bit out of form. I haven't been able to find anyone who will train and spar with me." Akane admitted.

"If you like, I could train and spar with you sometimes." Mousse offered.

"Really? You would do that?" Akane asked as her face broke into such a very big and happy smile. Ranma thought that Mousse didn't deserve any sort of smile from Akane and nearly decked himself for having such a thought.

"I could always use the practice to get better." Said Mousse.

"Hey Mousse?" Said Akane. "Want to be friends?" At those words, Ranma felt his heart wretch. She had asked him that same question when they had first met and now she was asking the blind boy. He wanted to kill the Amazon male.

"Tendo Akane, I would like that very much." Mousse said with a friendly smile on his face as he held out his hand for the young girl to shake. After they shook hands, Mousse decided that it was time for him to go. "I will come back tomorrow after you are back from school and we can start to spar everyday."

"That is great but Mousse now that we've agreed to be friends you don't have to call me Tendo Akane. It's just Akane." Akane told him.

"Yes, Ten . . .Akane." Mousse said. "Good night and I will see you tomorrow."

"Good night, Mousse." Akane told him as he went to leave and Akane went back inside the house.

Ranma caught his blue short haired fiancee just as she stepped inside the house. "Why do ya want to train with Mousse?" Ranma asked her. "He's not that good. I can beat him easy."

"At least he's willing to help me get better." Akane reminded him. "Unlike some people, Mousse will actually take me seriously as a martial artist. I am tired and I want to go to bed. Good night, Ranma."


	2. Jerk of a Fiance

Disclaimer: I am not Rumiko Takahashi-sama and if I was, this would be a sequel instead of being a fanfic. Therefore, I do not own Ranma ½.

_AN: Wow, a new chapter out in less than a month-just at 2 weeks in fact. This chapter is even longer the 1st one. Let's hope I can keep this momentum going. I'm quite proud of myself. Anyway, with the AN, someone pointed out to me that Akane and Mousse becoming friends is not a new concept. As I restrain myself from saying the proverbial 'duh,' I want just want to say that this story is just my lil verison of what might drive Ranma and Akane together without anything short of actual death or memory loss and also keeping everyone in fairly character. So yes, this is a Ranma and Akane story, as I am an avid Akane for Ranma supporter. _

_Why choose Mousse as the driving force to start things? I think that of all the characters in the story, Mousse would be a good choice to pair in friendship with Akane. I might go so far as to say that a Mousse and Akane pair up in a romantic sense would be pretty good, if and only if Ranma wasn't in the picture anymore and if Mousse either got contacts or laser eye surgery. As I've already established in the first chapter, they have a lot more in common than one might think. Is it too much to believe that 2 people tired of getting rejected from the people they love might turn to each other for some friendly support and comfort? Mousse is just about the only character who doesn't either have a vendetta against Akane or is using her for something, besides when he first makes his appearance into the series but that's a standard entry for most male characters into the Ranma-verse. _

_But why would Akane be more open to a friendship with Mousse instead of Ranma? Yes, in the beginning Akane had a deep fear of boys then along comes Ranma who makes all of her fears even worse. After a while though she sees that Ranma isn't the type of boy that she's been afraid of and even begins to be friends with him. Being the independent and stubborn people they are, they can't admit their feelings or anything when being forced by their parents to do so. Any sort of closeness they begin to start with each other is strained to say the least. By the time Mousse pops into the neighborhood Akane is slightly more open to the idea that not all boys are perverts. Mousse being constantly rejected by Shampoo is someone that Akane can relate her feelings and vice versa for Mousse to Akane feeling rejected by Ranma so it's logical to develop a friendship between the two. I'll explain more in later chapters at more AN's. Please R&R! _

_On a quick side note, ChanChanandMosasi--I'm thrilled that you guys read my story and liked it! I've seen your website, which is really well done and read almost all of your Ranma fanfics and I love almost every single one of them. Now, on with the story. _

Ranma awoke the next morning, feeling not so good. He wanted very much to believe that what had happened last night had just been nothing but a bad dream but he knew that he could not have imagined such a terrible thing happening. He had no idea how he would deal with this new situation. The blind duck boy being friends with his inazuke and then she asking him to spar with her was almost too much for the pig-tailed boy to bear. Ranma could deal with crazies out for his blood, water changing curses and even unbelievably bad timing but his temper-flaring fiancee was a completely different matter. Ranma Saotome, the greatest martial artist of his generation who could defeat any person and had already defeated monsters alike, had no idea how to handle a girl. And thinking of that girl, there she was opening the door to his room to wake him up to get ready for school.

"Ranma! Get up!" Akane yelled.

"I'm up already, ya tomboy!" Ranma yelled.

"Oh, OK." Akane said simply sounding almost dumbfounded. She was quite surprised to see that Ranma was already awake. It usually took a bucket of water to shake him out of his deep sleep. "Breakfast is ready." She told him calmly and then turned around to head downstairs.

Ranma got up, quickly got dressed and ran downstairs just in time for Kasumi to hand him his breakfast bowl. He began to shove food into his mouth making sure to leave no opening for his father to steal any of his breakfast. Akane didn't even bother to say her usual comment on her fiance's lack of table manners and instead concentrated on eating her own food. She had to make sure she would have plenty of energy for later in the day. As soon as she was done eating, Akane placed her bowl down.

"I'm heading to school now! Thanks for breakfast, Kasumi!" She said as she began to get her shoes on.

"You're welcome, Akane." Kasumi said with a happy smile on her face. Her lil sister could be so sweet at times when she wasn't being over enthusiastic with her temper.

"Uh, yeah, thanks for breakfast, Kasumi." Ranma told her as he finished the rest of his bowl, put his shoes on and ran after his fiancee.

They had left the house just a little early and so did not have to rush to school. Ranma was doing his usual fence walking and doing his best to look straight in front of him but as usual failed miserably. He could not help himself from stealing even more glances of his short-haired fiancee. Just like the day before, Akane seemed quite lost in her own thoughts.

"5, 4, 3, 2 . . ." Ranma muttered under his breath so that Akane couldn't hear him.

"Ching, ching" rang the sound of a very on-time bicycle bell.

"3, 2 . . ." Ranma continued to quietly count to himself.

"Aiya! Airen!" Shampoo called out, also quite on time.

It was amazing how much more perceptive Ranma became when not picking fights with his inazuke. As he braced himself for his morning glomping Ranma took a glance at Akane to see if she was even paying attention. Akane did look up when she heard Shampoo with her usual love-war cry and Ranma's mood was instantly lifted. She was paying attention to him. Akane wasn't just ignoring him or treating him indifferently. Things might go back to the way things were before. It wasn't an ideal situation for Ranma but it was certainly better than what was happening lately.

Akane watched as Shampoo clamped her body tightly to Ranma's and she felt her anger rising. "Ranma no baka!" She growled preparing to send Ranma airborne toward Furikan High School.

Just as her fist was about to connect to Ranma's jaw, the next shout also came right on time. "Saotome! You get your hands off my lovely Shampoo!" Mousse yelled and landed right next to a nearby tree and started to launch one of his many chains around the poor innocent tree.

"Stupid duck boy." Shampoo muttered with her arms still wrapped around the pig tailed boy.

"Mousse! That's a tree." Akane informed him.

"Oh, thank you, Ten . . .Akane." Mousse said pulling a pair of coke-bottle glasses out of his sleeves and putting them on. He had forgotten to put them on like he had done yesterday.

"You're welcome, Mousse." Akane said sweetly.

"You'll be late for school if you don't hurry." Mousse let her know.

"Oh! Right! Thanks! I'll see you after school!" Akane yelled as she started to make run for the school. "Ranma, you better get going too!" She warned him in a very scary and threatening way.

Ranma and Shampoo both stood there fairly dumbfounded that Mousse had basically ignored Ranma and Shampoo at the moment Akane had spoken to him. Ranma was especially befuddled over Akane's endearing tone. She had never sounded so nice to the Chinese boy before.

As soon as Akane had left everyone's sight, Mousse directed his attention right back to the shocked pair. "As I was saying, Saotome! Now we fight!" Mousse told him launching more hidden weaponry at Ranma.

Ranma snapped right back to what was happening in front of him. "I gotta get going too! I don't wanna be late either!" Ranma told both of them as he dodged the launched weaponry and hopped over the Amazon boy's head to followed after Akane.

"Aiya! Shampoo be late in delivery. Great grandmother get angry!" Shampoo said in realization and hopped back onto her bike to pedal away very quickly.

"Shampoo! Wait for me!" Mousse yelled after her and began to also run after her.

Akane had just arrived at the gates of the school when Ranma finally caught up with her and heard something that made him groan out of utter despair.

"How can my Muse want subject to invent, while thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse thine own sweet argument, too excellent for every vulgar paper to rehearse?" Kuno continued to spout to Akane.

"Sempai Kuno, move aside." Akane said grounding her teeth. She was desperately wishing that she had just run through the gates instead of walking through them so she could have avoided this extra aggravation.

"Fear not, Tendo Akane!" Kuno declared. "For I will release you from the foul sorcerer Saotome!"

"Aw, shut up, Kuno!" Ranma yelled as he came full speed through the school gates and landed a nice kick right to his face. Kuno dropped flat to the ground as usual unconscious.

"Ranma! I could have taken care of him myself!" Akane fumed at Ranma.

"Yeah, well, I already took care of him for ya." Ranma yelled back as he continued to run into the school building. As the school bell was just about to go off, Akane had no choice but to follow him.

School went by fairly quickly for the both of them. Akane stayed concentrated on the teacher's lectures and her studies. Ranma simply slept through most of the classes. Lunch was fairly simple as Ranma was force fed more Japanese pizza by Ukyo and Akane simply decided to ignore them both. School was then over and Akane rushed home and as usual Ranma was running after her. She was in a hurry to get changed and be ready for her sparring matching with Mousse.

"Hey, Akane! Wait up!" The pig tailed boy called after his fiancee.

"I can't, Ranma!" Akane answered back. "I don't want to be rude and keep Mousse waiting."

"What are ya in such a hurry to see that idiot for?" Ranma drawled.

"Ranma, Mousse and I are training. We'll be sparring." Akane reminded the young man as she began to slow down a little with the Tendo dojo coming into sight.

Ranma made some grunting sound in reply. He hoped it sounded as if he was brushing the situation off but to Akane it sounded more like an immature huff.

As soon as they arrived through the gate, Akane quickly ran up to her room and changed into her usual yellow gi. She noticed her gi seemed to be getting old and quite worn and briefly thought that perhaps she should find something else to wear when training when a knock sounded on the front door. Akane decided she would go shopping another day and headed out to greet her company.

"Why, hello, Mousse." Kasumi kindly greeted him just as Akane was walking down the stairs.

Ranma stood in the back of the hallway just inside of the doorway watching the conversation exchange.

"Hello, Tendo Kasumi." Mousse politely greeted her in return. "Hello, Akane."

"Hi, Mousse. I'm glad you no longer use my surname but you can do the same with my sister." Akane informed him. "Ready to train?"

"Yes, Mousse. It's just Kasumi." The older sister also told him. "You're training together? I'll be sure to bring drinks and snacks to you both later."

"Yes, Kasumi, and thank you." The Chinese boy said as he bowed his head. "And I am ready to train."

"Come on. Let's get started." Akane said and lead her friend to her dojo. "So what do you want to do first?"

It would be a while before Kasumi would have to get snacks ready for her lil sister and a good time before she had to even think of dinner. She decided she would continue reading the book she had borrowed from Dr. Tofu. As she retreated back to her place in the house, the kitchen, where she had left her book last she walked by Ranma and saw the dark clouded look upon his face.

"Ranma, is there something wrong?" She asked.

"No, everything's fine." Ranma answered and his mouth set back into a very firm line. "I'm going to watch TV."

Kasumi knew what he was really doing though. She wasn't stupid. Kasumi simply chose not to make everything obvious. She did things in her own way. It was much more subtle that way and helped bring a lil peace in a household that usually only saw chaos. She knew Ranma had feelings for her youngest sister and she knew her youngest sister returned those feelings but she also knew that neither would admit their feelings to each other out loud. Ranma was going to turn on the TV and sit right at the doors of the living room where he could watch his fiancee spar with another man and look as if he wasn't really watching at all.

"Why don't we start with some stretching and then do a light spar?" Mousse suggested.

"Great!" Akane said enthusiastically.

Ranma watched out of the corner of his eyes as his fiancee started on some work outs alongside one of his many rivals. He couldn't help but notice how lovely Akane looked whenever she got enthusiastic about something. That was the thing that attracted him most to her. It was how she wore her heart on her sleeve, how animated she got with all the strong feelings she had. His inazuke wasn't kawaiikune. She was cute on a day to day basis but she was downright beautiful when she was angry and there was no word to describe her beauty when she smiled. Ranma suddenly realized what it was that he was thinking and promptly cleared his mind. It wasn't all that hard to do in general with him and took no effort to do as he continued to stare at Akane which always left him wordless anyway.

The 2 young martial artists were done stretching and turned to face each other off. Mousse stood very straight with his arms held inside of the sleeves of his white Chinese robe. Akane struck her usual fighting stance. The young boy just stood there patiently. Of course it was the Japanese girl who lost her patience and launched a series of punches at her opponent. Mousse blocked and dodged all of them and then decided it was his turn to attack as Akane then was blocking and dodging his attacks. Just like yesterday Mousse dropped to a leg sweep to knock Akane down and just like the day before Akane fell to the ground landing on her bottom.

"Ooah!" Akane moaned as she sat down hard on the dojo floor.

It was Ranma as he also groaned when he saw Akane be taken down the same move from yesterday and was not even looking at the TV or acting as if he was. He knew his fiancee wasn't all that great but he did know she was much better than that. He only wished he could actually hear what they were talking about.

Mousse just stood there and looked down at his new friend. "Are you OK?" He asked.

"I'm fine. I can't believe that you got me again with a leg sweep!" Akane admitted feeling very embarrassed. She could hardly believe she had let herself fall for such an amateur stunt. She just hadn't expected it from the Chinese boy to do the same thing.

"I'm surprised I got you with that myself. You aren't in top fighting shape, are you?" Mousse suggested as he offered his hand to help her stand. He didn't want to make his new friend feel stupid. He actually enjoyed her company and didn't want to hurt her feelings. "You cannot let your mind wander so much during a fight. As you saw it can make you pay costly mistakes."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's not that I'm not taking you seriously or anything. I've just got a few things on my mind." Akane quietly told him as she accepted his hand to get up.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" He asked kindly.

"Nothing I can't handle." Akane said hoping she sounded more sure of herself than she felt. Truth was that although she tried to act as if nothing had bothered her today all day, she had been pondering her new feelings toward her forced-upon fiancé.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Mousse asked as he cleaned his glasses.

"Maybe another time." Akane said firmly.

"I am here to listen whenever you like." The boy friendly offered.

"Thank you, Mousse." Akane told him sincerely. "I'll keep that in mind. For now I'll focus better. Ready now?"

"I am ready." Mousse said calmly as he fell back into a comfortable stance.

"Um, Mousse?" Akane called.

"Yes, Akane?" Mousse called back.

"You're facing the wrong way." Akane informed.

The Chinese boy looked completely abashed as he turned around to face the Japanese girl.

"Mousse, you're still facing the wrong way. To your left. You might want to put your glasses back on." Akane informed him once more.

Mousse finally faced the correct direction. "Thank you, Akane." Mousse said quite humbly.

"Hey, Mousse, have you ever thought of contacts or something?" Akane asked him curiously.

"No, I have not considered that thought." Mousse told her. "The village doesn't have very many facilities to make contacts or correct my eyes."

"You'd probably be a lot better in a fight if you could actually see where your opponent is." Akane let him know. "You're not that much worse than Ranma. It's just that you can't see where he is a lot of the time and your weapons go right by him."

"I think I will take your advice and see a doctor about my eyes." Mousse told her amicably.

"I'm sure Dr. Tofu knows a good doctor that can help you." Akane said smiling back.

Ranma had been watching the entire time the conversation between his fiancee and one of his rivals been happening. Ranma was quite curious as to what the 2 were talking about but didn't want to look stupid by simply going into the dojo and busting whatever amicable partnership might be happening. He needed to be a lil subtle about it.

"Ranma, I made Akane and Mousse some snacks and some lemonade. Will you take this tray out to the dojo to them for me so that I can finish up dinner on time? I even put enough cookies for you to join them." Kasumi asked the boy dressed in Chinese clothes as she held out a snack tray for him to take.

"Sure, Kasumi!" Ranma said, very happy that he had the perfect reason to interrupt the very good friends in the dojo and for also getting another chance to eat some more of Kasumi's grand homemade cookies.

Ranma quickly stuffed a cookie into his mouth as he made his way across the yard and into the Tendo dojo. "I go' som' 'oo'ies fo' ya' f'om Kasumi." Ranma announced loudly with cookie pieces still in his mouth as he barged his way through the dojo doorway.

"Ranma! You shouldn't talk with your mouth full!" Akane fumed at her ill-mannered fiancé.

"Well, here." Ranma said as he shoved the tray into Akane's hand but, not before grabbing a handful of Kasumi's cookies.

"Mousse, would like some cookies?" Akane asked the usually-blind boy as she set the tray on the ground at equal distance from all 3 of them and gave each their respective glass of sweet lemonade.

"Yes, thank you, Akane." Mousse said as he joined the other sitting down on the dojo wooden floors.

For just 1 minute there was peace in the dojo but as everyone in Nerima knows, 1 minute of peace is 1 minute too long in the Tendo household, especially with the pig-tailed martial artist now living under the Tendo roof.

"So that was a pretty lame move that Mousse hit ya with, Akane." Ranma said opening his mouth wide enough to stick in a cookie and his foot at the same time. Even Ranma realized that the comment had been a lil too stupid for him to say, even for his standards.

"Ranma!" Akane yelled, her battle aura instantly flaring up along with her temper.

"I mean! Um . . .Even you should have been able to avoid a lame move like that, Akane!" Ranma stuttered out trying to avoid the beating that was soon to ensue and once again realizing only too late how much he only cut down on the waiting time to get such a beating.

Mousse watched the usual bickering between the 2 engaged teenagers and could only wonder if even Ranma realized how stupid it was for him to say such things to Akane. He may fawn over Shampoo until he trips over himself and even trip on her but at least he never insulted her. Not like he'd be stupid enough to insult an Amazon warrior anyway. He remembered enough of the bizarre punishments he'd received in the village as a youngster whenever he did tease one of the girls his own age. Mousse thought about it again and realized that he was quite happy it wasn't him that was going to be sent through the air in another second.

Akane tried desperately to hold her temper. She knew she had feelings for Ranma and punching him til he went flying into the koi pond was not the best way to keep what little of a relationship that they had, but she always felt so frustrated when Ranma said such careless things about her.

"Cause even if you are slow and clumsy and built like a brick with thighs too thick. . ." This time Ranma just stuffed another handful of cookies into his mouth. He figured if his mouth was too full he wouldn't be able to say anything else insulting to the blue-haired young girl.

"Ranma no baka!" Akane screamed as she quickly grabbed a wooden bokken that was hanging from one of the dojo's walls and ran to hit Ranma with it.

Ranma thought about running but he knew it was better to just let Akane take the frustrations that he had caused out on him. He figured it was the least thing he could do cause he never really meant to hurt his fiancee's feelings. He just couldn't seem to say things in a better way. Ranma braced himself as Akane smacked him right across the back with the bokken as if it were a baseball bat and he were a baseball. The young martial artist landed in the place that no matter how hard he tried to avoid he always ended up there anyway. Ranma had landed in the koi pond and came up sputtering water out of his mouth.

"What'd ja do tha for, ya uncute tomboy!" Ranma-chan yelled.

"I hate you, you stupid jerk!" Akane screamed at the top of her lungs. "Why do you have to be so mean all the time?"

"Uh, mean?" Ranma-chan could only repeat to herself as she watched as Akane ran into the house with her hands covering her face.

Mousse, having watched the entire event, stepped outside of the dojo and gave Ranma what could almost be a pitying look. "Saotome, even I could see that Akane did not want to hear that." Mousse said almost casually to his usual enemy.

"Yeah, well, if you can see that, why are you talking to a bush, duck boy!" Ranma-chan yelled at the blind Chinese boy.

Mousse suddenly realized that he had not put his glasses back on as Akane had suggested earlier and realized that he was indeed facing a bush. After putting his coke-bottle glasses back upon his nose, Mousse looked over at the girl still sitting in the pond with the koi fish angrily swimming around her. The Chinese boy saw what only could be a regretful look pass upon Ranma-chan's face before she quickly realized that she was being watched and made her face impassable again. Seeing such a look was enough to keep Mousse from attacking Ranma-chan at the moment.

Kasumi came outside with a tea kettle in hand. "Oh, my, Ranma." She said as she waited for Ranma to get out of the pool so she could change her back to her usual male form. "Mousse, you're welcome to stay for dinner if you like again today."

"No, thank you, Kasumi." Mousse declined politely. "I made a deal with Colonge that for the free afternoon I would be sure to be back to help with the dinner rush. I had better go now before she is angered that I might be late."

"All right, Mousse." Kasumi agreed. "What should I tell Akane?"

"Tell her I will see her tomorrow." Mousse said simply as he then made a small bow and hopped on the roof to make it back to the Nekohaten as quickly as he could.

"Why the heck is he gonna come back tomorrow?" Ranma-chan muttered herself so that no one else could hear as she finally got out of the pool much to the koi fishes' joy.

Unfortunately for Ranma-chan, Kasumi was much more observant than she made out to be but she did not let Ranma-chan know that. "What did you say, Ranma?" She asked as she poured the tea kettle over her head.

Ranma's height shifted back up and his voice got much deeper as he spoke. "Nothing, Kasumi. I guess I better go apologize to Akane."

"I think it would be better to wait til later after she's had time to calm down a bit, Ranma-kun." Kasumi let him know quietly as she walked back into the house. "Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes. You have time to take a bath if you like."

Ranma ran the suggestion through his brain and saw the intelligence behind it. He decided it would be best to wait til after dinner and he also thought that he would take Kasumi's other advise and take a bath. He could at least get out of his wet clothes. Ranma walked into the house and straight into the bathroom. He quickly stripped, washed himself over and slipped into the furo where he could actually relax for once during his usual martial art fight-filled day.

The only bad thing about being in the furo to soak, even for just a few minutes, was that during that time it was a perfect time for the mind to wander and ponder the day's events. Ranma never looked forward to having going over what happened during the day because there were usually too many things that had happened that could have easily ruined his day and today had certainly been one of those days. In the furo was also the time in which Ranma could let himself admit some of his feelings. No matter how many crazy things happened during his day a smile or a kind word from his kawaii tomboy fiancee could make all the trouble in the world worth it but today he had gotten neither from her. In fact the only person to have gotten a smile from her was the blind Chinese boy. Ranma almost growled to himself at that thought. Why was it he could be so nice to her when all Ranma managed to do was just make her even madder at him most of the time? Then again, Mousse wasn't in love with Akane . . .not that he was in love with her either, Ranma thought to himself. Even he could only admit to so much while soaking the tub. And Mousse had better stay not in love with Akane, Ranma continued to think to himself, or he would . . .but Ranma wasn't able to finish that thought as he heard Kasumi's voice calling for him that he needed to go out now to be in time for dinner. Ranma quickly jumped out of the furo, got dressed, went out into the dining room and plopped down in his spot next to where his fiancee always sat but this time she wasn't there.

"Um, where's Akane?" Ranma asked to Kasumi.

Unfortunately, it was Nabiki who answered him instead since Kasumi had just walked back into the kitchen to get more food. "She yelled in her usual dulcet tones that she wasn't eating dinner with such a jerk of a fiancé. What did you do this time, Ranma?"

"I ain't done nothing!" Ranma said defensively.

Nabiki gave Ranma an almost bored expression on her face. She wasn't stupid. Ranma wasn't either, sometimes. No one believed his words.

"You might as well just tell me, Ranma." Nabiki let him know. "It'll save you some trouble. In fact just hand over the yen you have in your pocket now."

"No way! It's all I got left!" Ranma yelled just defensively before. It seemed he wasn't going to get a break at all that day.

"All right." Nabiki agreed. "If you tell me why Mousse was here earlier then I'll see if I can get Akane to go easy on you."

Ranma thought about it and figured that it wouldn't hurt to tell her if she would put in a good word with Akane so she wouldn't be mad at him for the rest of the night and make it easier on him when he would apologize to her. "Mousse and her are sparring and training together."

"Interesting." It was all Nabiki said as she grabbed her bowl and began to fill it with some food that Kasumi had brought out of the kitchen.

Ranma suddenly realized that he had just caused himself a whole lot of trouble as he stared into his empty bowl. At least he shouldn't deal with all that trouble on an empty stomach and began to fill his bowl til it was heaping and began to eat.

Luckily for him since Akane wasn't at dinner, his father didn't try steal his food as there was extra at the table. However, his pop never could stay out of Ranma's business. Genma-panda held up a sign with 1 hand as he ate with his other hand. "You better apologize, boy!" The sign read.

"What's that, Pop? I can't hear ya!" Ranma said as he continued to fill his mouth and ignore his ridiculous father.

"Yes, Ranma!" Soun piped up from his usual spot at the head of the table. "You better apologize to my baby girl!"

Ranma, not wanting to incur the wrath of the Tendo father's demon head decided it was better to agree. "All right! I will." He muttered in between hoover-like mouthfuls of food.

That seemed to placate the lead of the Tendo household and everyone finished dinner in relative calm. Nabiki ran upstairs as soon as it was over.

"Ranma-kun, I saved a bowl of food for Akane. Why don't you take it up to her?" Kasumi asked of Ranma as she stood to clear all of the bowls.

Before Ranma could give his usual complaint of why did he have to be the one to do such a thing, he realized it would be a good reason for Akane to let him into her room and give him a chance to talk to her. "OK, Kasumi." He said as he went into the kitchen after her to get the tray of food.

Ranma was soon out of the kitchen, up the stairs and standing in front of his betrothed's door. Nabiki had just come out of Akane's room a few seconds earlier.

"You really made her angry this time, Ranma." She informed him, for free for once, as she went into her own room. "I even offered to knock off some of the interest on her."

He was hesitating hoping that he wasn't going to be putting his foot back into his mouth once the door was opened. He had already made her so angry and didn't really want to make the situation any worse. Well, there was no sense in standing there like an idiot and so he finally knocked. "Hey, Akane!" Ranma yelled through the door. "Open up!"

"Go away, Ranma!" Akane yelled back.

Ranma was at times quite clueless to the moods his forced upon-fianceé usually had but even he could tell that she sounded quite upset, though it didn't stop usually and it didn't stop him then. "Come on, Akane! Let me in!" He called again.

"Leave me alone, Ranma!" Akane yelled back even louder.

"Kasumi wanted me to give you this food!" Ranma let her know.

There was quiet for a minute as Akane contemplated whether she was hungry enough to want to take the food from Ranma and by doing so force herself to see him. She decided it wasn't worth the aggravation and told him so. "I'm not hungry!"

"Aw, Akane! You gotta eat!" Ranma told her.

"Maybe if I skip a meal or 2 I won't be built like a brick and my thighs won't be so thick!" Akane retorted back to him angrily.

Ranma had the sudden thought that his fianceé was a lot angrier than he had thought. He decided he had better go back to what he knew best. "Akane, if you don't open this door I'm gonna break the door down!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Akane shot back to him still through the closed door.

"Yeah, I would!" Ranma retorted back, getting ready to make good on his dare with the food tray still in his hand.

Ranma was just about to bust the door open when Akane yanked open the door. She instantly grabbed the food out of his hands, then threw a book right into the pig-tailed boy's face and promptly shut the door. Ranma fell onto his back with his feet up in the air at the impact of said object. He had only 1 thought in his head that his fiancee was definitely a lot angrier than he had thought.


	3. Nabiki's Price & Pay

Disclaimer: If I really owned Ranma, I'd be rich and I wouldn't be writing fanfics.

_AN: Finally got another chapter out! It took me another month to do it and I do apologize for that. It's been a very busy few weeks and it's only going to keep getting worse as the end of the year gets closer with those holidays. Don't worry though as I absolutely plan on finishing this fanfic and won't leave it in the hanging in the eternal internet air. I was rereading what I've written of this fanfic and I realized something and must apologize for it. I am very sorry that my writing in this fanfic is so filled with holes and that I leave so many mistakes in spelling and grammar. I'm in the middle of 2 other major writing projects and I use writing this story as a break from them. I write what I can til I'm ready to pass out into sleep and don't usually bother to go back and really check things too much so my writing in this story is sort of rough and quick. My writing style is actually a lot more detailed than what I do in this story and in my other writing projects I'm always going back to what I've written before over and over again and editing things. I just want this fanfic to be fun and to tell my version of the Ranma-verse though so I hope that you can forgive me. Unfortunately the Japanese names and phrases play havoc with the spell check. Lucky for me, a good friend of mine who happens to like the story, usually tells me what obvious mistakes I've made and he points them out to me to fix them later. Also, I know it's cheesy to be using those Japanese phrases but it's just for the fun of it. Oh, I'm also sorry for not really going over any of the fighting scenes. I'm not too good at fighting action scenes like that. My writing strengths are usually in plot and characterization so I hope I've done a good enough of a job in those areas though I can't and don't take credit for the characters in this as they belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama. This fanfic is meant to just be a fun lil story to read, so on with the fun reading and please leave a review! _

Akane opened her eyes that morning and stared at the ceiling of the room remembering all that had happened last night. After she had grabbed the tray of food from Ranma, threw the book at him and then shut the door, she had just set the tray down near the door and cried til she had fall asleep. She just wished so much for Ranma to be nice to her just once and was so tired of how he could only insult her and of how she could only get angry and hit him. Ranma was so difficult though and always managed to say the thing that bothered and hurt Akane the most.

Akane knew she wasn't feminine but she wanted nothing more than to be like her oneechan who was the kindest and sweetest person in the world. She didn't need Ranma reminding her every second that she wasn't anything like her sister. It was Kasumi that Akane thought was closest to resembling their mother. It was Kasumi that took care of them all. It was Nabiki who took care of money matters. Akane decided that it would be her role in the family to take over the dojo so she had been the one to take up the family's style of martial arts. At first it had been her duty but not long after she had learned her first kata, she found that she loved it. It was seeing Akane trying to learn her first kata that had brought Soun back to the world and not so deep into grief. He was still a shadow of a man that he had been when his wife had been there but he was much more himself when teaching the art to his daughter. It was even better for both Soun and Akane when they found how good Akane was at the art but then Ranma had come along followed by the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew and they all showed how much better they were compared to her. She didn't need Ranma's constant insults at how much worse she was or how unskilled and clumsy she could be at times. She didn't need Ranma reminding her every second that she was so uncute. Akane felt that being feminine also determined beauty. She wasn't feminine therefore she wasn't beautiful or even pretty. Whenever Ranma teased her, he hurt her. Akane had vowed that she would never feel so hurt again after her mother had died so instead of feeling hurt, usually Akane got angry. Akane got angry and Akane needed to vent so she'd pound whatever it was that had caused her to get angry.

Akane hadn't been so angry last night though. She was just hurt. She was tired of being hurt. The only person who could always hurt her though was Ranma. Akane decided that it was time not to allow Ranma to hurt her anymore. The question was how to go about to actually doing it. She couldn't ignore him. He lived in the same house as her and his other fiancees made it impossible for them to be ignored but there had to be something she could do. She couldn't just give up the engagement with Ranma. She hated being forced to do anything but she didn't really mind that the engagement was how she had met Ranma in the first place. It wasn't good to just give it up either as it was a matter of family honor. Akane decided that the best action would be to get over Ranma and wait for Ranma to choose either Shampoo or Ukyo. After all, there was no way he was going to pick her. Til that happened she would simply put all of her energies into other things. She would focus back on the things in her life that she had done before Ranma had entered her life. That was school, her friends and martial arts. She wouldn't get so angry or at least she would try not to. It wasn't a perfect plan but it was a plan and it was good that she had thought of a plan at all since it was now time for Akane to be up and getting along with her day. She had woken up a lil bit before her usual time so she had plenty of time for her jog. Akane got dressed and ready to go and she would add a half-mile to her usual route to prove to herself that she was serious on focusing herself on things other than her sex-changing fiance.

It was the usual morning ruckus that Akane entered when she came back from her longer than usual run. Genma and Ranma were in the middle of their usual morning workout. Kasumi was in the kitchen getting breakfast ready for everyone. Soun was in the tea room reading the morning paper. Nabiki still wasn't quite up yet. Akane had a smile on her face as she had thoroughly enjoyed the good workout.

"Good morning, Oneechan!" Akane called.

"Good morning, Akane." Kasumi said smiling at Akane as she continued to cook everything to a savory perfection. "The furo is ready for you."

"Domo Arigato!" Akane told her as she made her way to the bathroom to wash off the sweat she had built up.

Akane was soon out though, dressed and setting the table when Ranma went in for his usual bath after having been thrown into the koi pond. Once the table had been set, everyone was seated and the food had been served, they all began to eat. Ranma guarded his food intensely from his father as he thought about how he would apologize to Akane this time around. Nabiki was closely watching her baby sister and her fiance wondering what would happen next and how she would make money off of the pig-tailed martial artist.

"Um, Akane?" Ranma hesitantly got her attention. He was nervous not knowing if his fiancee was still angry at him or not and for not knowing if his mouth was going to betray him again.

Akane instantly tensed. This would be the first test on how she would be able to keep that promise to herself. She hadn't been so good at keeping her promise to Kasumi when she had made her promise not to hit anyone out of anger again and she didn't want to make that same mistake again. "Yes, Ranma?"

"Um, I'm sorry for um . . .last night." Ranma told her and then bracing himself for whatever reaction he was going to get from her.

"That's fine, Ranma." Akane said easily enough as she went back to eating. Truth be told she was quite grateful that he hadn't insulted her. Although if he started to be nice to her, it would make sticking to her plan that much harder.

Ranma sat frozen in shock that he had gotten off so easily. Genma took the opportunity of his son being thoroughly distracted and stole the rest of the food that had been in his bowl. Soun wasn't sure whether it was safe or not to start celebrating that the 2 schools might be united yet and so did nothing yet. Kasumi was glad to see that her sister was finally learning the importance of not holding onto her anger. Nabiki could only stare at the both of them shrewdly as she wondered whether her profits might be cut down by this strange new development.

"I'm leaving now." Nabiki announced to them all and got up to leave much earlier than she normally did. She had business to attend to that morning and had to get to it in a hurry in order to learn of what her baby sister's new attitude meant.

It was just a few minutes after Nabiki had left when Akane finished her bowl and declared that she was leaving for school early too.

"Oh, Akane, before you go, Mousse left a message for you yesterday." Kasumi informed her. "He said he would see you later today."

"Thanks, Kasumi!" Akane told her as she walked out of the door.

Ranma finally getting over his shock saw that his short-haired fiancee was leaving for school already and decided that he had better get moving also. He went to eat the rest of his food in one last bite but saw that his bowl had been mysteriously emptied. Ranma decided that he would make his pop pay later for stealing his food and run after Akane. Akane simply walked along lost in her own thoughts. Ranma, not sure of what to do, just walked along the fence and watched her. He had no idea what to make of her just letting him off the hook for last night. He thought for sure that the blue-haired girl would have still been extremely mad at him. He decided that it would be a very good idea for him to tread upon this unfamiliar ground very, very carefully.

"Hey, Akane?" Ranma called out to her hesitantly.

"What is it, Ranma?" Akane asked back. She didn't really feel like talking right then but she was very curious to what her pig-tailed martial artist fiancé would say.

"You sure you're not mad or anything?" Ranma said finally spitting out what was on his mind.

"I already said I wasn't." Akane said resolutely and kept her face staring forward. "You're off the hook."

"But why?" Ranma blurted out.

"Why what, Ranma?" The blue haired girl repeated.

"The only time you've ever let me off the hook was when Ryuoga accidently cut your hair." Ranma explained with only a lil bit of panic in his voice.

"It's no big deal." Akane said simply.

"But!" Rama started to say.

"It's no big deal, Ranma." Akane interrupted him. "I have to get to class early." She told him as she began to run as fast as she could toward school.

"Akane, wait!" Ranma called after her but it was no use because the tomboy either didn't hear or simply refused to listen to him. The boy briefly had the thought that he ought to run after her but for some reason didn't have the heart to do so. It was way too early for him to get to the school just yet though he briefly wondered why it was so important to Akane that she get to school so early. Ranma suddenly had the thought that he ought to get to school on time too. The infamous bike bell had not rung yet and it was soon time for its arrival. The cocky martial artist decided that it was best that he not tempt the Kami just this once and began to run like lightening to the teaching building.

Ranma was very correct that it was too early for him to be at school already. There was at least 5 minutes before the bell was going to ring. Ranma hated idle time, which is why he didn't really enjoy school. It was time he could spend training in the art and any time he wasn't training was idle time. The pig-tailed boy looked around the school yard and didn't spot his fiancee anywhere though he could tell she had already gone through the area. Kuno was laying on the ground with a foot print on his face. Ranma stopped to take a good look at that. Not only was it funny and something he never got sick of seeing but it made him think. Akane had been much more direct with dealing with Kuno lately, except for yesterday when he just kicked Kuno in the face himself. For the past few days she, except for the day before, Akane hadn't even bothered to listen to the kendoist's inane rants but instead knocked him out with one blow and continued her way. Oddly enough, Nabiki hadn't even come by to drag Kuno to the nurse's office. There was still 2 minutes left though. That was plenty of time for anything to happen. It was even stranger when nothing did happen. The entire 5 minutes had passed and Ranma had stood in the school yard without having been attacked. The young boy was thoroughly convinced that some sort of record for Nerima had just been broken. He also knew that the Tendo middle child probably would have the exact record of such act with odds written down for it. It was 5 minutes when none of the Amazons had broken a way through, the lost boy hadn't burrowed his way there, members of kidnappers of the month club hadn't busted through demanding Ranma give up his fiancee, or random martial artists hadn't demanded challenges and he hadn't even been splashed by the old woman who was always cleaning her sidewalk. It was all almost too eerie for the young pig-tailed boy and he decided he might as well add to all the weirdness by getting to class on time without having been dragged by his tomboy fiancee.

Ranma walked into the classroom and the entire class including the teacher seemed to take a collective gasp of surprise. Everyone had their eyes glued to him as he went to take his seat. It was everyone except the one person who usually did look at him. Akane already had her notebook out on her desk, pen in hand and nose already in the text book. Ranma was a lil surprised by this but didn't think that point was all that out of the ordinary. Akane had always been better than him at school. She actually liked school. Once the teacher had recovered from his shock, class was then started. Ranma did his usual drifting in out of sleep during lectures but kept a close eye on his fiancee. Akane seemed thoroughly engrossed in studying and listening to the teacher. The lunch bell rang and Ranma was very happy to get out of the classroom. He went to grab the bento box that Kasumi had packed for him and out of the corner of his eye watched Akane. Akane didn't look in all that much of a rush to get to lunch. In fact she was still looking at the English exercise they had just gotten. After a quick moment she finally looked satisfied about something of the exercise and she slowly went to pack her things to get her bento.

"Ranma-honey!" Ukyo called. "Let's have lunch together!"

Ranma almost cringed when he heard his best friend call him. Ranma usually enjoyed hanging out with his 'cute' fiancee since she was very willing to listen to what he had to say and give him free food every time he did stop by and see her. Ukyo expected something from him though instead of just the friendship he willingly offered her. He just had no way to tell her that without hurting her feelings and it was getting a lot harder for Ranma to be around her because of that.

"Hi, Uc-chan." He said quietly, all the while still watching his 'uncute' fiancee out of the corner of his eye.

Akane had briefly looked up from what she had been doing when she had heard Ukyo call for Ranma. For a brief second she had caught his eyes and Ranma saw an emotion he couldn't describe flash through her eyes before they steeled themselves behind a protective shell so quickly that Ranma almost thought he had imagined seeing such a feeling.

"Come on, Ran-chan." Ukyo said cheerfully as she forcefully evicted her betrothed from the presence of his other betrothed.

Akane watched as Ukyo dragged Ranma out of the classroom and gave a silent sigh to herself. It always hurt seeing Ranma go off with one of his cute finacees and she could never resist pounding him for doing it but she had resigned herself to this fate. She only hoped she had the strength to see this through but she was Akane Tendo. Of course, she had the strength to do anything. After all it was the one thing that Ranma constantly told her she had-brute strength. Akane lifted her head high. She may have lost her feelings to a cursed sex-changing boy but she hadn't lost her pride yet. She wouldn't show anyone her weakness. She would show everyone her new changes though. She would show everyone that she was a good martial artist with Mousse's help. She might even show everyone she might be cute. She had to go shopping for something better to wear during sparing anyway. She might as well buy herself a few nice things and make herself feel better. Akane knew she wasn't beautiful but she didn't think she was ugly as Ranma said she was. She also knew she was a lot smarter than most gave her credit for. Nabiki was certainly the brains of the family with all of her money making schemes but Akane was no dummy either no matter what Ranma said. She got good grades in school and if she kept with her studying and not spend time worrying over her jerk of a fiancé she could get perfect grades if she just tried. Akane didn't need Ranma. She cared about him but she could live without him. It was the first thought that had made her smile all day though deep inside it also made her want to cry.

Akane went out to the school yard feeling much better than she had all day. Her smile did falter a lil bit when she saw Ukyo hand feeding Ranma pieces of her freshly made okinamiyaki. Ranma seemed to be enjoying it. Well, he wasn't fighting her like he always fought Akane whenever she cooked for him. She saw the bleachers were empty where he usually sat with his friends and Akane decided that she might as well snatch the spot for herself and enjoy a quiet lunch to herself.

The rest of the school day pasted by rather uneventfully by the Nerima standards with no wild attacks, death threats or random fiancees claiming a piece of Ranma. Ranma began to think he might enter Nabiki's pool as to guess when trouble would start but he didn't have the yen to do so at the moment. Ranma stood by the gates waiting for Akane to emerge from the building. She had waited to speak to the teacher for whatever reason after they had all been dismissed.

"Ranma, you waited for me?" Akane asked sounding almost hopeful.

Watching Akane stare so intently at him, of course, caused Ranma to panic. "Of course not, ya tomboy!" He denied vehemently. "I just figured if I watched ya now, it'd save me the trouble of having to rescue ya later from some crazy prince or something."

"Oh, of course, I should have known." Akane said sounding only a lil crestfallen as she began to walk home.

Ranma hopped up on the fence and matched his pace with hers. There was silence for a few minutes as neither knew what to say to each other. Of course, that made Ranma blurt out the first thing that was on his mind. "So ain't ya goin to meet the duck boy to spar with him?"

"Oh! Yes, I am!" Akane cried out suddenly as she began to run home. "I almost completely forgot."

"Aaah!" Ranma exclaimed in exasperation of the things his own mouth said. "I gotta learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes."

At the dojo, Nabiki was making calls. When she heard the front door being opened, she immediately cupped her hand over the mouthpiece and hung up.

"Tadaima!" Akane called as she stepped through the doorway. She could have sworn someone had just been standing in the hallway just before she had opened the door but no one was there now.

"Imoutochan, Mousse is already here for you." Kasumi said as she walked into the hallway.

"Arigato, Onechan." Akane said gratefully as she followed her eldest sisters back into the living room where Mousse stood watching over the latest shogi game between the Tendo and Saotome patriarchs.

"Hi Mousse." Akane greeted the white-robed Chinese boy. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"Hello, Akane." Mousse said as he bowed in greeting to his newest friend. "I have just arrived."

"OK." Akane said. "You'll have to wait just a lil bit longer. I have to get changed."

"Of course." Mousse assented. "I will wait for you in the dojo."

"Great!" Akane said as she quickly turned around to run upstairs and get changed.

Mousse simply walked out to the dojo and stood in the middle of the room. He had to admit. He did like being in the Tendo household and their dojo even if he did miss being near his Amazon princess. It was nice to get away from Cologne. The honored Amazon clan elder never gave him a break from the restaurant and he had been hard pressed not to tell the dried up old monkey what exactly it was he was doing during his past afternoons away from the Nekohaten. Mousse had no idea what Cologne might do to him if she found out he was sparing with Akane Tendo.

"Aiya!?" Shampoo demanded to know as she busted through the walls of the poor patched dojo.

"Shampoo darling!" Mousse cried out happily as he opened his arms to run to the purple-haired girl only to trip on the rubble that had fallen in front of him when she had come crashing through the wall and land flat on his face. "You have come to see me and declare your love for me!"

"Mouse not be so stupid!" Shampoo yelled at him derisively. "Shampoo come see her Ranma. But, why duck boy train with Kitchen Destroyer?"

Mousse quickly stood up and adjusted his glasses. "Um, Shampoo, my most beauteous one, how did you find out?"

"Mercenary girl tell Shampoo you here after Shampoo pay." Shampoo seethed at the poor usually blind boy. She didn't know why exactly she was seething but it involved the clumsy girl that stood in the way of her airen and now seemed to be getting close to the duck boy and that seemed a good enough reason to be seething.

"Shampoo, can't you ever just use the door!?" Akane cried out in exasperation as she stepped into the dojo. She just knew her sister would blame her for this.

"Obstacles I kill!" Shampoo cried as she lunged to take a strike at Akane's head.

Luckily Akane, with some years of martial arts training, though not as much as the others in the room, dodged out of the way and it was also in that moment when Ranma decided to see what the commotion was about in the dojo. The ending result was that Akane when she ducked and dodged she did so right into Ranma. When the dust had cleared Akane opened her eyes to find her face within inches of her fiance's face.

"Wha'd ja do that for, you tomboy!?" Ranma instantly cried in self defense and jumped a good 3 or 4 feet away from the just fallen girl.

Akane's instant thought was that Ranma was just disgusted to be in close contact with her to have immediately jumped away and yelled at her. Her next thought was anger. When she was ready to grab the closest thing at hand to smack the back of his head, she stopped and remembered her promise to herself that she wouldn't trouble herself anymore with such matters. It took all of her self control to keep her temper back from pounding the ill spoken martial artist but she did it, with shaking and clenched hands held behind her back. Once Akane held herself in check she suddenly realized that it wasn't exactly his fault that they had fallen. She was the one who had rolled into him.

"I'm sorry, Ranma." Akane said though her voice still bristled with just a hint of anger.

Shampoo had stopped her attack on Akane when the short haired girl had knocked into her Airen. Everyone knew that it was stupid to attack Akane in front of Ranma. Shampoo may ignore some of what happens between the 2 of them but she wasn't blind either. Rama was fiercely protective of her. Shampoo assumed it was because of the pre-arranged engagement with family honor and all that.

Ranma looked stunned for a long moment as his brain tried to register that Akane had just apologized to him without having smashed his head into the dojo floor first. His brain quickly lashed onto the first thing it noticed. Nabiki's going to blame me and make me pay for that hole in the wall. "Hey, Shampoo, whacha doing here and couldn't ya have used the door?"

"Aiya!!" Shampoo cried out as she jumped into the air so that she could throw her arms out her airen. "Shampoo so glad you here and she bring too you delicious for husband."

Mousse made ready to launch some chains out of his robes at Ranma.

Akane saw that a fight was about to break out and decided it was better to try and head it off. Besides she was already tired of seeing Shampoo hang off of Ranma with her entire body. "If you 2 could leave, Mousse and I would like to start practicing!"

Mousse decided to hold off attacking the pig-tailed boy and see what would happen next. Both Shampoo and Ranma could only stare at Akane as she had basically asked to be alone with Mousse. Shampoo promptly let go of Ranma in her shock and slid to the floor. It was Ranma that spoke first. "Well, fine! Go ahead and practice with the blind duck boy for all I care."

"I know you don't care." Akane said so softly that only Mousse heard her as Ranma began to stomp out of the dojo.

Shampoo only tossed her hair and followed Ranma as he left. Shampoo was tempted to stay around to see exactly what was happening between the duck boy and the violent girl but knew she had to get back to the Cat Café before her great grandmother got mad at her for taking too long. Ranma decided he would just head into the Tendo living room to read a manga he had gotten the day before and wait for dinner to be ready.

"You can go chase after Shampoo if you like, Mousse. I know you would probably rather be chasing after her than practicing with a klutz like me." Akane told him.

Mousse did have the brief thought of going after his beloved purple-haired Amazon but for the first time in his life, declined to do so. After all at least he knew he was sparing with Akane so he'd be prepared for any hits she aimed at him and she wouldn't feel the need to knock him unconscious like Shampoo did a lot of the time. "We made an appointment to spar together and I have every intention to keep the promise I made to a good friend." He told her back.

Akane's face broke out into such a happy grin that Mousse found himself smiling back at her. "Thanks, Mousse. I think you're a really good friend too."

"Are you ready now?" Mousse asked her.

"Hai!" Akane answered and dropped into her usual fighting stance.

They continued to spar for the rest of the afternoon. Trading blows and throws and kicks, both of them starting to break into a lil of a sweat. Akane was doing much better than she had the day before and even pressed Mousse into several defensive moves to keep her off of him. They were both so into sparing and enjoying it so much that they hardly noticed the time.

"Akane! Dinner will be soon!" Kasumi called out to them from the entrance of the dojo.

Akane and Mousse dropped their fighting stances at the same on hearing Kasumi. "OK, Oneechan!" Akane called back.

"I will be seeing you tomorrow, Akane." Mousse told her as he began to take his bow to leave.

"Oh, Mousse, I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow. Do you mind if we don't practice tomorrow?" Akane asked.

"That is all right but I thought you wanted to practice everyday so that you can better quickly?" Mousse asked back.

"I do but well, my gi is getting kind of worn and I want to have something else to wear before it gets even worse." Akane explained to him. She then had a sudden great idea and voiced it to him. "I know! Why don't you come with me? It won't take me long to buy something else to wear and we can stop by Dr. Tofu's office to see if he or someone he knows help you with your eyes."

Mousse took only a second to think of it and he had his answer. "I would love to accompany you."

"Great! I'll see you tomorrow right after school!" Akane said happily.

"I will see you then." Mousse told her as they walked out of the dojo together and he quickly leaped over the wall to head back to where Shampoo had gone.

Akane walked into the house for her bath. She was happy that someone wanted to be her friend and spend time with her. She only wished Ranma felt the same way but Akane quickly pushed that thought out of her mind as she wanted to finish washing quickly so that she could eat dinner with the rest of the family. Akane came out of the furo, feeling much more relaxed, just as Kasumi was setting the food onto the dinner table.

"Akane, you came out just in time. Sit down and we can have supper." Kasumi let her know in her very sweet and kind voice.

"Thanks, Onee-chan." Akane told her and sat in her usual place beside Ranma though she pointedly avoided looking at him.

"So you going to spar with Mousse tomorrow?" Ranma asked her hoping he sounded casual instead of the anger he felt at the long haired Chinese boy.

"No, we're not sparing tomorrow." Akane informed.

Ranma felt much better knowing that but kept the feeling to himself but it didn't keep his foot-in-the-mouth syndrome from making its usual appearance. "Why not? I thought you and Duck Boy were getting along so well?"

"For your information, Ranma, Mousse and I are going to Dr. Tofu's tomorrow to see if there's anything to do about getting his eyes checked." Akane let him know still without looking at him.

"What for?!" Ranma sputtered just after stuffing a big spoonful of food into his mouth.

"It's what friends do." Akane explained to him as it were the plainest thing in the world.

"Yeah! Well, fine!" Ranma retorted as the only thing he could think to say.

"Akane, how could you?!" The Tendo patriarch cried out with tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Oh, Dad!" Akane started to say in a very exasperated tone. "Mousse and I are just friends!"

"Ranma, m'boy!" His father called out for once not in his panda form. "You better go with them!"

"Why do I wanna do that for?!" Ranma yelled out in protest.

"She's your fiancee and you should be with her!" Genma yelled in explanation.

"Really! You needn't bother!" Akane told them all and then turned to her sister. "Why in the world did you charge Shampoo to know that Mousse was here?"

"I simply let her know where Mousse was so she knew that he wasn't chasing after her." Nabiki simply told her as if it should make perfect sense to everyone else.

"I would appreciate it if you all just stayed out of my business!" Akane yelled as she slammed her bowl down and then ran up stairs into her room.

"Ranma, you better make my baby girl better tomorrow!" Soun warned the young man.

"You said it, Tendo!" The Saotome father chimed in. "You better go with Akane and Mousse tomorrow, Ranma!"

"Aw, shut up, Pop!" Ranma said as he knocked his father outside of his head, finished the rest of his bowl in just 1 more bite and followed Akane upstairs to head into his own room.


	4. It's Not a Date

Disclaimer: A fanfic is written by a fan so therefore, I don't own Ranma.

_AN: Consider this a very, very late holiday gift. I had this done for a while and just didn't have the time to post til now. The holidays were insane and afterwards I fell down with some weird cold, and then the internet gave me some problems in which it wouldn't work for me. It's just been a bad few weeks or so now with all sorts of other bad stuff deciding to all pile up on me at once. My self esteem is a bit low and has me unsure of what I've written before. I very much hope that my emotional state hasn't disturbed the level of quality in my writing. I know it's not that great but I don't want it getting any worse. If it has, forgive me please and I hadn't meant to take so long to get a new chapter up and I hope that this chapter will make up it and if it doesn't my next chapter will hopefully be better. I hope you all enjoy it. _

Akane woke up that morning and wasn't sure if she should give out a groan in protest or welcome greeting to the rising sun. Last night had only equaled a 2 on the 1-10 Nerima scale of daily chaos and destruction so it hadn't been all that bad but it hadn't exactly been the greatest day either. Her family had once again managed to nose their way into her affairs and Ranma had once again handled things in his chaos causing ways. On the positive side of things, Akane had managed to hold her temper from pounding the pig-tailed boy into dust and even realized that the situation had been her fault and apologized for it. Today was also the day where Akane was going with Mousse to get his eyes checked and for her to go shopping for something new to wear during training. This lil event could be fun, as Akane liked spending time with Mousse as her friend, but as she lived in Nerima where normal things such as going to see a doctor and shopping usually ended up being complete disasters, especially with a certain pig-tailed martial artist living under the same roof as her. Akane decided that she would give out a groan in protest to the morning as she got out of bed to get dressed for her morning jog but then she would do her best to enjoy the rest of the day.

As Akane left her room to head out of the house to go on her jog, Ranma laid awake in his room listening to her leave. He had hardly slept at all last night, staying awake trying to figure out how to deal with this outing Mousse and Akane were going on together later that day. Was it a date and if it was, how was he supposed to deal with that? It wasn't as if he and Akane had ever taken the engagement seriously but they had never abandoned it either. It wasn't as if they ever said they had a relationship together but they had never gone looking for any other relationships either. In fact whenever anyone who had tried to come between them, they had both adamantly refused to let them do so though and they had bickered and denied what was happening the entire time. He knew how he felt about his forced-upon fiancee though. He just had no idea what she thought about him and that was the problem. It didn't help that he refused to admit those feeling to anyone, even himself at times, so he didn't blame her most times for the way things happened between them but Ranma had felt things had come to an understanding, albeit extremely weird but it was comfortable, between them. Ranma would say something to tick Akane off, Akane would get angry, Ranma would tease Akane, Akane hit him, Akane would sulk, Ranma would apologize and everything would be right where it had all started. So why in the hell did Akane all of a sudden want to be friends with Mousse and was even going out with him later? Did that mean Akane was tired of him? Ranma just didn't know and his head hurt thinking about it. Ranma decided that if his head hurt than someone else's head ought to hurt to, mainly the one who caused almost all of the problems in his life in the first place. Before his father could throw him out of the window for their daily morning fight, Ranma jumped out of his bed, dodging his father's lunge to grab him by the collar, and threw him out of the window instead.

Akane came back from her jog, feeling very refreshed, and saw Ranma once again sparring with his father. For just one second she allowed herself to stop, watch and admire her forced-upon fiancé. He was in top form and just grace in motion. He was fast, in control and in his element when he was fighting. Ranma really was the best. He was also very good looking with that black braid, blue eyes and hard muscled body. He really was the Kami's gift to women but he knew it and that was his downfall. He was an arrogant, insensitive jerk who never knew when to keep his mouth shut and it was this thought that reminded Akane of why she was choosing to leave him behind. He didn't care about her and only took care of her out of obligations for family honor. Akane finally averted her gaze and continued to walk back into the house so that she could take a bath and get ready for school on time.

As Ranma continued to dodge most of his father's attacks, he suddenly had a feeling of someone watching and took less than a second to see who it was. Seeing Akane just standing there watching him with a face of such sadness made Ranma stop dodging just long enough for Genma to knock him across the stomach and send him flying into the koi pond.

"Ranma, m'boy! You're getting soft! Maybe it's time for us to go on a long training trip!" Genma yelled at his son.

Ranma directed his attention back at his father and decided he'd already had enough of his words. "Aw, shut up, Pop!" Ranma told his dad as he jumped out of the pond and used a swift kick to knock him into the pond.

"No fair!" Read a sign that was held in the air by a panda now sitting in the koi pond but Ranma ignored anything else his father did as he made his way into the Tendo house to get cleaned up for breakfast and school.

Breakfast was eaten in record time as Akane decided to simply ignore Ranma's horrible table manners. Ranma was still contemplating how to handle what was going to happen later and decided it was best that he keep his mouth shut for the time being so as not to start anymore unnecessary fights. The 2 left the house and were heading to school before their families could take a guess as to what happening between the young possible lovers. Ranma, more so than usual, found it even harder to keep his eyes off his blue-haired fiancee as he tried his best to make sense of her. He just couldn't figure her out for the life of him.

"Ching, ching!" Rang the sound of a certain bike bell. Ranma groaned inwardly. He definitely didn't feel like having Shampoo hanging all over him and not at all wanted to see the guy who was causing all his mental stress at the moment. Akane actually looked up to see from which direction that the bike bell tolled.

"Nihao!" Shampoo called out her usual cry as she launched herself at Ranma. The pig-tailed boy could only brace himself for said Amazon impact. Just as Shampoo had latched her body onto the young man's body, her usual follow-behind made his war cry.

"Saotome, you will pay for putting your dirty hands on my dear Shampoo!" Mousse cried out as he made to land a kick on said's head.

"Hi Mousse!" Akane said.

At the sound of Akane's voice, Mousse immediately stopped his attack and gave a bow to his friend. "Hello, Akane. How are you today?"

Akane's face broke out in a happy grin that someone had asked about her well-being without her having already been kidnaped or caught up in a fight. "I'm doing good. How are you?" Akane asked him in turn.

"I am doing well also." Mousse let her know as he adjusted his glasses to make sure they were still on his face. "I look forward to this afternoon."

"I can't wait either." Akane responded. "Well, I better get going." The blue-haired girl then turned her gaze onto her fiancee who still had that Chinese bimbo wrapped around him. A glower instantly appeared on her face. "Ranma, I'm going on ahead. Take your time." Her face then eased up though it was not a full smile. "I'll see you this afternoon, Mousse."

Having watched the exchange of words between the 2 with more than a troubled feeling at what was happening, Shampoo simply pushed away any confusing thoughts and finally spoke. "Yes, Duck Boy take Violent Girl on date and leave Shampoo and Airen to go on own date."

Ranma's only thought was to repeat Shampoo's words and wonder if it was really a date between those 2. He watched as Akane quickly walked away and realized that he had also better a going to school if he didn't want to do bucket duty. For the past 3 days, both Akane and Ranma had been able to get to school on time and so thereby avoiding punishment. It was the longest Ranma had gone without being late to school and for the time being he wanted to keep with that concept.

Akane was slightly disappointed in herself for the fact that tried as she might she just hadn't been able to hide her feelings about Ranma. Her feelings were just too strong. She would simply have to try harder. Akane had been told that she was a good actor. At least she had kept herself from beating him to bits.

Furikan High School was looming into view as Akane made her steady way to there. Ranma had finally caught up to her after Shampoo finally remembered her delivery to make.

"Hey, Akane?" Ranma called hesitantly.

"What is it, Ranma?" Akane asked back.

"So, are you and Mousse going on a date?" Ranma blurted out in hurry.

"A date?!" Akane shrieked in alarm. "Of course not! We're just friends! Why are you asking, Ranma?"

"I'm not asking!" Ranma automatically cried out defensively. "It's just that your dad told me to go too and I just wanted to make sure . . ."

"You don't have to come with us, Ranma." Akane let him know.

"I know . . ." Ranma started to say but was then interrupted.

"Ran-chan!" The cheerful Ukyo called out coming closer and closer to the betrothed pair. "I overheard you guys talking. So Akane's going on a date with Mousse? Oh, Ranma, honey! That means you're free to go on a date with me now!"

Akane's anger immediate began to smolder but as she had just told herself that she wouldn't show her anger anymore, no one noticed.

Ranma immediately began to sweat under the pressure. Ukyo was his best friend and he cared about her but he didn't care about her in that way. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to tell her that without hurting her feelings or without getting hurt by her giant spatula.

"Aw, Uc-chan, you'd have to close the restaurant and I don't wancha to lose business cause of me." Ranma mentally congratulated himself for a well thought out excuse.

Ukyo had other ideas as there was no way she was going to let the perfect opportunity to spend time with her Ran-chan. "Nonsense, Ran-chan! Of course, I can afford to close the place down for one night, especially if it's to spend time with you!"

Before Ranma could reply, Akane decided she'd just had enough as she bolted into the school yard. "We're at school now! I'll see you in class, Ranma!"

"Akane?" Ranma whispered after her. Fortunately for him, his brown-haired fiancee hadn't heard him as she continually dragged him into the school and Ranma changed that mental pat on the shoulder to a mental kick in the butt.

They entered the gate just in time to see Akane belt Kuno a good one and he was out for the count before he could even say a word. Akane seeing the 2 coming quickly walked into the building and went to her classroom. The rest of the day passes it normally did. Well, at least what was normal for the past few days. Akane was studiously working and listening to the teacher. Ranma continually stared at her as he couldn't fall in sleep in class. At lunch, Ramna sat with his buddies, Hiroshi and Daisuke, while Ukyo cooked okinamiyakis for the 3 of them. Akane sat with her 2 friends Sayuri and Yuka.

"Akane, want to go to the movies with us?" Sayuri asked her friend.

"Oh, I can't." Akane told her.

"Why not?" Yuka piped into conversation.

"I'm going with Mousse to get his eyes checked out and then I'm going shopping." Akane explained.

"You're going out with Mousse?" Yuka asked to make sure she had heard right.

"Yeah." Akane answered simply.

"Is it a date?" Sayuri asked.

"Of course not! Why does everyone assume it's a date?!" Akane cried out in frustration.

"Well, you are spending time with him a lot and now you're actually doing something together, Akane. It sounds like you're dating to me." Sayuri told her.

"It is not a date!" Akane huffed as she grabbed the rest of her lunch and stormed away.

Unknown to her Ranma had watched the conversation and saw her leaving in a very angry mode. Akane ended up making her way to the roof of the high school. She was just sick of everyone thinking that she was going on a date with Mousse. Mousse was her friend and there was nothing more to it. They liked spending time with each other as they were one of the only 2 people in the Nerima Wrecking Crew who did not want to kill each other and didn't have to worry about arranged marriages to each other. Why couldn't people just accept that? Akane was so tired of it that instead of finishing her lunch, she balled the rest of it into a tiny ball of trash and threw it as far away as she could.

"There goes that brute strength of yours." Ranma drawled out arrogantly as he made his way to where she was standing.

"Ranma!" Akane nearly spat out. She was in no mood to deal with his insults right then and decided that she needed do so as she began to stalk her away around and away from him. Before she could get very far though, Ranma stepped in front of her and refused to let her pass. "Get out of my way!"

"Akane, relax." Ranma told her as he grabbed her my her shoulders to keep her from getting away.

"What do you want?" Akane finally asked him as she crossed her arms in front of her chest in a very intimidating manner.

"I . . .uh . . ." Ranma stuttered on his answer, as he hadn't thought that far ahead as to exactly what he would say or do when he had joined his short-haired fiancee.

Lucky for him, the school bell rang signifying that lunch was now over. Neither of them said a word as they both just looked each other in the eye and came to a strange understanding for once as they both headed to class. The rest of the classes passed in relative peace for the rest of the day though Akane's little outburst during lunch time prompted for most of the class to leave notes on Akane's desk hoping that she'd answer their question of whether she and Mousse were now dating. She simply crumpled all of them and dropped them to the floor as she stayed concentrated on her studies. The last bell rang and everyone piled out of the school. Akane took her time coming out of the school. Ranma wasn't all that far behind her. Ukyo wasn't all that far behind him.

"Ran-chan!" The brown-haired fiancee called after him.

Ranma hardly slowed his pace but it didn't take long at all for Ukyo to catch up to him. "What is it, Uc-chan?" He asked hoping he didn't sound nearly as strained as he felt.

"We're going on a date, aren't we? While Akane and Mousse go on theirs." She reminded him flashing her brightest smile at him.

"Actually, Mousse and I aren't going on a date but if you and Ranma want to go on a date, don't let me stop you." Akane stiffly told her and she then took off running toward the Tendo home.

"Akane!" Ranma called after her.

"Oh, Ranma honey, let her run off if she wants to. Akane can be so immature sometimes. Now you can go on that date with your cute and mature fiancee." Ukyo said cheerfully to the pig-tailed boy.

"Uh, Ukyo . . ." Ranma started to say but he had no idea how to explain to his stubborn childhood friend that he didn't want to go on a date without hurting her feelings.

"What is it, Ran-chan?" Ukyo asked him with such a puppy happy look on her face.

Ranma just couldn't find it in his heart to ruin her happy face. "Nothing." He told her. "Well, let me go home to drop off my school bag."

"Of course!" Ukyo said cheerfully, sounding very assured that she had just won this round against Akane.

By the time Ranma and Ukyo were stepping inside of the Tendo home, Akane was already changed and ready to leave with Mousse. She was just coming down the stairs and was wearing her favorite yellow sun dress with the pink flowers scattered over it and a dainty set of sandals on her feet. She even had time to run a brush through her hair and Ranma thought his blue-haired fiancee had never looked better.

"I'm ready now, Mousse. Let's go." Akane told him happily.

"That is very good, Akane." Mousse replied to her as he waited for her to come down.

"Boo hoo!" Soun cried as his youngest daughter came walking down the stairs. "Now the schools will never be united!"

Akane decided to simply ignore her sobbing father.

"Have a good time and don't be late!" Kasumi told them as she stepped out of the kitchen. Akane smiled at her eldest sister.

Nabiki was mysteriously and suspiciously absent at the moment.

Akane and Mousse simply walked by the other couple as they stood in the hallway. Just before they left through the front door, Akane turned around. "I'll see you later, Ranma. I hope you have fun with Ukyo." She told him evenly.

"Wait, Akane!" Ukyo called out. "Why don't we go with you and make it a double date?"

"It's not a date, Ukyo!" Akane retorted. "Mousse and I are stopping by Dr. Tofu's office and then going shopping real quick for something that I can wear when I'm sparring."

"Then you won't mind at all if we tag along then, Akane!" Ukyo insisted.

"It's all right, Akane." Mousse told her. "It can prove to them that we're just 2 friends hanging out together."

Akane stopped and looked at Mousse and thought for a second. "All right." She then agreed.

The 4 of them left with Ranma shooting furative glances at Akane as she and Mousse walked ahead of him and Ukyo. He wondered if Akane had ever looked at him to check on the situation that was happening. He wasn't sure. He also noticed that while he and Akane were usually very awkward at conversation, she and Mousse had kept a running commentary since they had left the house, while he hardly said a word to Ukyo as she continually chattered to him. It wasn't long at all before they arrived at Dr. Tofu's office.

"So new injuries today, Mousse and Akane? Or you, Ranma, and Ukyo?" Dr. Tofu greeted them cheerfully.

"Not at all, Dr. Tofu." Akane spoke to the good man. "I brought Mousse here to ask you if you had any ways to help Mousse with his eyesight or if you knew any other doctors who could."

"Well, Mousse, I'm not an eye doctor but I'll see what I can do for you." Dr. Tofu told him. "Why don't you step into this exam room and we'll get started here. Akane, Ranma, Ukyo, if you all will wait out here. It won't take long."

"Of course, Dr. Tofu." Akane replied cheerfully.

She then took a seat on the other side of the bench away from where Ukyo was trying to snuggle against Ranma. Ukyo seemed to be pointedly ignoring Akane. Akane decided to pour herself a cup of tea so that it might be easier to not notice what Ukyo was doing. She was very hurt by what happening in front of her but she was determined not to let it get to her. Ranma was very uncomfortable as he tried not to sit so close to Ukyo. Akane hadn't even finished the entire cup and there was a fine line in the small cup from how hard Akane was gripping onto the small china cup when Dr. Tofu opened the door to let Mousse out.

"I'll call him just after you leave and make an appointment with him for you tomorrow." Dr. Tofu told Mousse as they walked out.

"Thank you, Dr. Tofu." Mousse said giving the man a bow just before they all began to leave.

"Bye, Dr. Tofu, and thanks for seeing Mousse!" Akane called to him.

"Seeya, Doc." Ranma also called out.

"I'll see you later, Akane, Ranma, Mousse and Ukyo." Tofu said as he waved them all out of his office.

"So what did Dr. Tofu tell you, Mousse?" Akane asked him as she began to walk beside him.

"He said that my eyesight was indeed pretty bad and that contacts were not an easy option for me." Mousse let her know. "However, he did tell me of laser surgery."

"Laser surgery? That sounds dangerous." Akane said sounding uncertain about that option though she did absolutely trust the good chiropractor.

"He told me that it is a very safe procedure." Mousse informed her. "That appointment he said he was making for me was with a doctor who is an expert at it. Tomorrow will just be so that I can talk to this doctor."

"That sounds really good, Mousse." Akane told him encouragingly.

As Mousse continued to explain what more the good Dr. Tofu had told him about laser surgery to Akane, Ranma could only watch at how easily it was for the 2 of them to converse. Whenever he and Akane tried to talk, he always seemed to only make her angry at him.

"Ranma-honey, are you paying attention to me?" Ukyo suddenly said trying to bring her fiancee's attention back to herself.

"Uh, yeah, Uc-chan." Ranma said, being still very distracted, but it seemed to put the young lady beside him at ease as she began her upbeat chatter once again.

"So where do we go next?" Ukyo called out to the 2 in front of her.

"My part of the trip was done. It is now Akane's turn." Mousse told everyone.

"Well, I just need to get something to replace my gi." Akane said. "But don't worry that won't take long."

"Lead the way." Mousse told her.

Akane led the group to the street where all the shops were at and they soon stood in front of an athletic clothing shop. Akane quickly made way to the girl's section and began picking through the selections they had. Unfortunately, they didn't have her usual gi in her size.

"Well, I guess there isn't anything here for me." Akane said ready to give up.

"What about this?" Ukyo called out to her. In her hands she held up a pair of simple light blue yoga pants.

Akane looked at them and didn't think they were all that bad. "Are there any in my size?" She asked as she walked toward the rack that Ukyo stood next to. The 2 girls began searching through the rack trying to decide which worked better for the petite girl while Ranma and Mousse looked at the some of the athletic equipment they had in the store.

"So you and Akane have been hanging out a lot." Ranma finally said to the white-robed Chinese boy. Ranma thought that the best way to talk to the Chinese boy was to just be straightforward with him, besides it wasn't as if he was any good at the small talk stuff.

"Akane and I have become good friends." Mousse said simply as he looked over a golf club.

"That will never fit into your robes." Ranma told him but continued his original line of conversation. "It's just that you never talked to each other before and now all of a sudden you guys are hanging out every day."

"I enjoy spending with her. She is a pleasant person to be around." Mousse told him. "And you'd be surprised the kind of things I can fit into my sleeves."

"I know all too well the kind of things you can fit into those robes of yours. I gotta ask ya, Mousse. Why a training potty?" Ranma reminded him as he stared at the other martial artist trying to figure out any hidden meaning to his words.

Before either of them could say another word, Akane and Ukyo popped their heads out of the clothing rack. "I'm done now! I just have to pay for these and we can get out of here." She told them as she walked up to the salesperson at the register.

In no time at all, the group of martial artists were standing on the sidewalk. When Akane happened to glance at shop window very close to where they were all standing and she saw the most cute dress ever. It was a light pink sun dress with a vine of yellow spring flowers that started on the left shoulder that went diagonally across her chest to the right and stopped at the bottom hem of the skirt and also on the mannequin there was a very pretty set of yellow sandals that perfectly matched the dress.

"Wait one second!" Akane nearly squealed as she shoved her bag with her new sparring outfit into her friend's arms.

Mousse was nearly knocked down but composed himself and was able to stay standing. He adjusted his glasses and barely saw a blurring vision of a petite young girl run into the dress shop. Ranma just stood there barely able to keep himself from taking that same bag and shoving it down the Amazon Boy's throat. How had Akane instantly relied on that weapons-throwing-and-missing martial artist and not on him anymore? Ranma was not happy about it at all and threw a death look at the other young man. Ukyo just suddenly realized that the hand of her fiance was clamped shut into a fist and was very glad she had let go of holding hands with him when she had. She then suddenly realized that Ranma was very angry and decided it was good to back off a little bit.

Luckily for everyone, Akane came right out of the shop with another bag in her hand and she had a very bright and serene look upon her face that then became directed at her friend who was holding her bag. "Domo arigato, Mousse. I just saw something and I just had to get it." She told him feeling a bit sheepish at her impulse shopping action.

Mousse smiled at seeing his friend so happy. "As long as you are overjoyed, Akane. We are friends and friends help each other." He reassured her.

"Thanks, Mousse. Well, I guess that's it." Akane told them all. "We did what we set out for."

"But it's still early. That's not much of a date is it?!" Ukyo asked them. She was determined that the date between Akane and Mousse to work out. If Akane was happy with Mousse that meant that Ranma could be free to love her. Ranma wasn't in the best of moods so she needed time to make him feel better and the best way to get to a man or especially Ranma Saotome's heart is through his stomach. "Let's get something to eat!"

"Kasumi will be waiting for us for dinner." Akane let her know.

"I wouldn't mind something to eat right now." Ranma blurted out as he realized it was still at least an hour til dinner time.

"Let's go then!" Ukyo told them all as she led them to her own restaurant.

Ukyo quickly unlocked her front door letting the small gang inside and then went into the back kitchen to grab some of her already made batter after turning on her grill. She was gone for only a second while Ranma, Akane and Mousse sat at the bar right in front of the grill. Akane and Mousse were talking together as Ranma sat next to Akane wishing that he could think of something to say to her and also trying to figure out a way to knock the long-haired Chinese boy out with anyone noticing.

It was at that moment when Shampoo walked through the door looking very pissed off.

"Airen on date with Spatula Girl?!" She cried out, though to Akane it didn't seem to have as much venom that Shampoo usually used for her war cry toward her. "Stupid Duck Boy, why you leave Shampoo to do all work at Nekohanten to go on date with Violent Girl?!" It sounded like that time Shampoo actually sounded truly angry.

The moment that Shampoo had busted through the door, Mousse had almost launched himself across the room so that he could enter lovingly in her arms but the instant she had directed her words to him, he knew it would have been a very bad idea to him if he had actually stood up or even moved. For once he listened to that survival instinct inside of him.

"It is not a date!" Akane cried out to everyone. "Mousse and I are just friends!"

"Ran-chan are and I are on a date though!" Ukyo decided then it was time for her to yell out. "It was supposed to be a double date, Shampoo. You don't have a date so I guess you gotta go, sugar!"

Akane had just decided that she had just gotten her fill of all the nonsense. It was supposed to have been a pleasant afternoon with her friend when it was quickly escalating to be an all out rumble for who is ranma's top fiancee. While the other 2 females began a very heated and soon-to-be dangerous argument, Akane gave Mousse a look telling him that she was getting out of there and that it was prolly a good idea for him to do the same. Mousse gave a near imperceptible nod in agreement. Ranma, carefully keeping an eye on his short-haired finacee, saw the quick exchange and didn't like it at all, even if it was a good idea. She had always done those sort of looks and messages with him only. Now she was excluding him and joining in with the blind Chinese boy?! There was no way he was letting those 2 leave by themselves.

Akane had just stepped outside with Mousse walking right behind her. Ranma following less than a step behind them. Akane was just about to breathe a sigh in relief when another sight in front of her made her call out loud. There, no more than a few feet in front of her, was walking a lil black pig with a yellow bandanna wrapped around its neck.

"P-chan!" Akane called out happily to the lil pig who had been missing for nearly 3 weeks now. If there was ever a time Akane needed comfort from her beloved pet, it was truly at that moment and she opened her arms so that he could jump right into them.

Ranma could only stare at the lil animal thing in his fiancee's arms in sheer disbelief. It just had to be Ryouga just then. Did the Kami hate him that much? The pig-tailed boy was certainly believed so.

Ryouga, in his cursed form, was absolutely relieved to see Akane. He had been los . . .just missed a few turns and been having problems finding the Nerima ward in Tokyo for the past 2 weeks now. He was a lil bit disconcerted to see that Mousse was standing next to Akane instead of Ranma though. What exactly had been happening since he'd been gone?! It had to be Ranma's fault and Ryouga beared his teeth and growled right at the cause of all problems.

"Ryouga?! Don't mess with me, Bacon-breath!" Ranma warned the lil pig since the young pig-tailed was seriously getting his nerves stretched this afternoon.

"Ranma, don't you start picking on P-chan!" Akane warned her fiancee. "And where is Ryuoga? I don't see him right now."

Mousse could just watch all of the happenings in wide-eyed amusement. It was just at that moment when Kodachi the Black Rose in her black gymnast suit burst through the front door with her ribbon waving through the air and a small box in the other hand. "Hohohohohoho! Ranma-sama!" Kodachi laughed out in her most sinister way. "Ranma-darling! I have heard that the peasant has finally given up her claim on you and we are free to express our love for each other!"

"WHAT NOW?!" Ranma yelled out in true frustration and anger at the lunacy that was breaking forth.

Lucky for Ranma there was at least 1 kami out there who didn't hate his guts because both Shampoo and Ukyo had heard the Black Rose's declaration and they both came charging out. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" They both yelled out in unison.

"Plebeians! How dare you address me like that!" Kodcahi shouted in protest to the 2 other martial artists as she readied her ribbon for combat. "You must now face the Black Rose for your insolence!"

The 3 girls stood there staring each other down and ready to face off when Akane gave Mousse another significant look and the 2 slowly began to sneak away. Akane just wanting to get home with P-chan intact in her arms and Mousse wanting to get out of there without a concussion of some sort. Ranma saw his fiancee trying to sneak away with another man and got a bit steamed. For the second time again in the past few minutes He decided it was better to follow along, and then pound the white-robed Chinese boy into duck dumplings afterward.

The 3 of them walked in a line with Akane leading them back to the Tendo house and Ranma closing up the end. None of them said a word for a while. That was mostly because of the fact that they didn't want to make some noise that would magically bring all of the rivals' wrath right back to them.

They were a few blocks away from where the chaos had started when one of them finally did speak.

"So I guess your date got ruined." Ranma blurted out in haste and some other feelings he wasn't ready to register in his mind.

"It wasn't a date, Ranma." Akane said quietly as she was very tired of explaining. "It was just 2 friends trying to enjoy a nice afternoon together before it was very rudely interrupted."

"It didn't seem like it to me!" Ranma exclaimed in resistance.

"So you mean those were dates when you and I went out for ice cream or something before Shampoo showed up?" Akane countered this time making sure to stare right into his eyes.

"No! Of course not! We never . . .I'd never . . ." The pig-tailed boy tried hard to sputter out.

"Exactly, Ranma." Akane answered for him and then turned to Mousse. "Not exactly the afternoon we had planned, was it?"

"No, but we got what we needed accomplished." Mousse agreed with his friend who he noticed seemed slightly more sadder than a few minutes ago.

Just at that moment a slash of lightening broke thru the air and a clap of thunder sounded in the otherwise clear sky. That could only signify 1 thing.

"I didn't hear a thunderstorm on the weather report." Akane commented.

Ranma swore that he was never getting out of bed again. Rain was the last thing he needed.

"The beauteous huntress Akane is on the prowl and would it be that she chose me as her prey to stalk." Kuno's voice loomed out as she stepped out from behind a telephone post.

Akane groaned out loud. Wasn't at school enough to deal with Kuno?

"Allow me?" Mousse asked sensing that his friend was a lil stressed at the moment.

Akane could only nod as she felt that if she opened her mouth just then, she would just yell in pain over the day she was having. Ranma could only stare at the Chinese Boy and wondered what he meant. Mousse instantly shot out a bowling ball out of his robes that promptly hit Kuno in the head and knocked him out.

"Thank you, Mousse." Akane told him. "I would have done that myself but I don't want to put P-chan down and he might be gone for a while again."

Ranma was thoroughly disturbed by that lil action. Of all things to show that the 2 were dating, to have let Mousse deal with Kuno was the thing that topped off everything. Only Ranma had ever been allowed to deal with Kuno for her but she had just let Mousse do it for her.

"Are you OK?" Mousse asked her. He sensed that something was bothering the blue-haired young woman.

"It wasn't exactly the sort of afternoon I had been looking to have." Akane said simply with a wry grin on her face.

"No, It wasn't but let it be said that an afternoon in Nerima is never boring." Mouse agreed with her bringing a smile to Akane's face.

They soon stood in front of the Tendo front gate. "Here we are now." Mousse said amicably. "I must get going before Colonge gets word of where I was from Shampoo."

"All right. Thanks, Mousse." Akane told him. "Same time tomorrow?"

"Yes. I will have to leave a lil early tomorrow as the appointment that Dr. Tofu made with the eye doctor is also tomorrow." Mousse let her know.

"No problem, Mousse." Akane said smiling at him.

"I will see you tomorrow." Mouse told her and took a leap as he left via rooftop hopping.

Ryuoga, in his piglet form, was still in Akane's arms and had watched the entire exchange of conversation that had happened in front of him. He vowed to pound on Ranma til he knew what was happening and Ranma had gone around the corner of the stone fence and was promptly pounding his head into the wall.


	5. Akane's Great News

Disclaimer: Once again, I hold no rights over Ranma ½ and am simply borrowing but I promise that I'll give all the characters back when I'm done. Unless I decide to borrow them again. In which case I'd give them back after that too.

_AN: So it's been a few months. It's not my fault. I had to replace the hard drive on my lap top twice because each time it decided to burn out and each time I lost about 50 pages over all between my 2 main stories and about 7 pages of this fanfic. It was a very big blow to my morale and it wasn't til recently did I get in the mode of writing. Luckily, I've caught up on everything and I was finally able to get this chapter out. Unfortunately, this chapter isn't as long as the last chapter but I've been keeping the length fairly consistent and unless my computer decides that it hates me again, the next chapter shouldn't take nearly as long to get out. I've also gone back and edited a few small mistakes in the last chapters and cut down any long author's notes. Anyway, read and enjoy!_

Ranma lay in his bed having not slept at all last night. He had only 3 thoughts in his head 1-Mousse was dating Akane, 2-He had to kill Mousse and 3-He had to get Akane back . . .not that he wanted her back or anything. It was the principle of the matter. She was HIS fiancee after all. That was all. It wasn't as if he had feelings for her or anything. Of course not, that wasn't it at all. After finding a much more comfortable thought to follow, Ranma realized that he still had yet to figure out how to do what he had just said to do. What's more is that he still had to do something about Ryuoga. Akane had gone straight to her room and had only come down to dinner, only to go right back up when she was done eating. Ranma quickly grabbed his pillow and shoved it into his face. He only wished that it was P-chan that he could shove the pillow into.

Akane woke up in a much better mood than the day before. The fact that it was all over and done with it seemed to help matters too. Yesterday's outing had gone much better than she had expected with not having lost her temper once at all and best of all, P-chan had finally come back to her. She had really missed her beloved pet. The last few days had been really tough for her and she really could have used some comforting support during those times.

P-chan, or Ryouga as he preferred to be named, had finally surmised what was happening from the half-grumbling that Akane had muttered under her breath throughout last night about what had happened during the day. Everything was Ranma's fault, of course. Mousse was getting close to his Akane all because Ranma didn't know to take care of her, though it was good that Ranma didn't treat Akane right as she would then be with him, and Ryouga nearly blacked out with that thought, but it didn't matter how Ranma treated her because he didn't deserved Akane who was the kindest and most beautiful girl in the world . . .it was all Ranma's fault and Ryouga felt much happier when his train of ranting thoughts finally traveled onto a caboose of an idea that he understood and accepted perfectly.

It was good that Ryouga finished his thought as it was just then that Akane was now bringing him downstairs for breakfast. She had decided to skip her morning jog so that she could spend more time with her beloved pet as he seemed to always be missing for days and even weeks at a time. Ranma had also, by then, arrived downstairs and his nearly-panicky mood darkened slightly when he saw the her 'pet' in his inazuke's arms and he glowered at the said pig.

"You betta' behave yourself, bacon breath!" Ranma nearly growled in warning to him.

Ryouga's answer to growl back from where Akane held him and she was the one who gave a retort. "Don't you dare start picking on P-chan, Ranma!"

Kasumi gracefully served everyone breakfast. Nabiki sat in her usual spot smirking at Ranma's still glowering expression as he stared at the lil thing in his fiancee's arms as she peacefully ate and fed said dear pet. For once Soun and Genma were sitting quietly though they watched the certain couple very carefully as they tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

Akane, having been the first person to breakfast that day finished first, ran upstairs to put P-chan in her room. "You be good for me, baby. I have to go to school now but I'll be right when it's done." She told him as she gave the black piglet a kiss and set him down on her bed. The young female martial artist quickly grabbed her school bag and began to run out of the front door to get to school on time.

Her fiancé was just on her heels. "What ya in such a hurry for, Akane?" He called out after her.

"I don't want to be late!" She yelled in answer and began to run even faster.

"But this is way earlier than when we usually leave!" Ranma continued to yell as he ran after while on the fence. "Not in a hurry to meet with your _friend_ Mousse, are ya?!"

"What are you talking about, Ranma?" Akane answered in huffs and puffs as she kept at her rate. "I have a meeting with our home room teacher."

"What about?" Ranma asked curiously. He hadn't heard about that before.

"I'm not sure." Akane told him as she finally slowed her pace. "He just said he wanted to speak to me."

"Ching, ching!" A bike bell rang out and Akane nearly groaned out loud. She just didn't have the time to deal with the Chinese bimbo this morning if she wanted to find out what her teacher wanted to talk to her about.

"Airen!" Shampoo cried out happily as she usually launched herself from her bike toward the pig-tailed boy.

Ranma was less than happy to see his Chinese forced-upon fiancee because following her was her ever vigilant suitor. The young martial artist was still wary as to how he should deal with the Chinese hidden weapons master and his intentions to his blue-haired fiancee. The only other option was just to head straight to school and though it was novel idea, it did have its drawbacks as the rumor mill would monger over just why Saotome Ranma would be at school early. On second thought, Akane was already at school and he ought to check on her to make sure that someone from the kidnapper-of-the-month club hadn't come by yet. With his decision made, Ranma did a hop, skip and a jump over Shampoo's bike to get to school.

"Can't talk, Shampoo! Gotta get to school!" The pig-tailed martial artist called out to the purple-haired martial artist.

Shampoo still about a block away knew she was just too far away and decided that she might as well finish her delivery and just see her Airen later that day. It was Saturday and school was only half the day. He would be by for lunch later. Ranma Saotome never turned down free food. Mousse just continued to run after his beloved and figured he'd see his friend later that afternoon.

The young Japanese martial artist stood on the wall that surrounded the yard of Furikan High School. It was still early, about 10 minutes. There were a few scattered groups of classmates and they all stared at the pig-tailed young man and they all wondered 2 things–what was Ranma Saotome doing early for school and why wasn't he with his fiancée Akane Tendo? Ranma stood there for another 5 minutes contemplating his options once again. It was a rare opportunity for the young man to do such a thing as his actions were usually decided for him and he just reacted. He stood there and looked through the window into his classroom and saw Akane standing there talking to the teacher still. The window was, indeed, open, and it wasn't like standing around outside being gawked at was the greatest thing in the world and he leaped from the wall and into the building.

By that time, Akane had already sat in her seat just 2 rows in front of him and to the left and was getting out her notebook and books. The young Japanese girl seemed to be deep in thought and she was smiling. It wasn't her full smile that could melt anyone's steel heart, but it was still eye-catching and Ranma wondered what would make his inazuke smile like that. Akane was cute but when she smiled, she was out-right kawaii, not that Ranma ever took the time to notice, of course. Before the young man could approach and ask what brought such happiness to his fiancee, the school bell rang and everyone began to pile into the classroom and he was forced to take his seat.

The morning passed even slower than usual with Ranma not being able to sleep but the bell for the end of the day rang soon enough and the young man was ready to get out of there. He just gotten out of his seat though when his arm was already accosted by someone else's though.

"Come on, Ran-chan." Ukyo said as she batted her eyelashes at him. "Why don't we have lunch together at my restaurant?"

"Uh, well." Ranma stammered out. He hadn't really planned on going to Uc-chan's today even though that's where he usually went on Saturdays for lunch. He'd rather find out what was going on with his blue-haired fiancee but Ranma Saotome almost never passed up food and he figured he could find out later. "Sure, Uc-chan."

Akane was still putting her things back into her school bag when she saw the couple walk right by her without so much as a glance and once again, she was slightly hurt. She had been hoping to share her great news with her inazuke but decided that it was probably for the better that he wasn't the first to know. She was still supposed to be distancing herself from him after all, but still, it would have been nice. The Japanese girl just gave a mental shrug to herself and set herself on the course for home.

"Tadaima!" Akane called out as she entered her front door. "I have great news that I want to tell everyone!"

It was, of course, her oldest sister Kasumi who came to the doorway to greet her. "Akane, you're home." She said smiling and glad to see sister so happy. "What is this great news?"

"Where is everyone? I want to tell everyone all at once." Akane said as she slipped out of her shoes.

"I'm sorry, Akane." Kasumi said, hating to disappoint her. "Father is out with Mr. Saotome and Nabiki said that she had some business to take care of and wouldn't be home until dinner."

"Oh, well, that's OK." The blue-haired sister said, her happiness faltering for just an instant.

"Well, you can tell me what it is." Kasumi suggested and Akane told her. "Oh my, that is really great news." The eldest sister cheered, giving Akane a hug. "I'm so proud of you. I'll have to cook all of your favorites for a celebration dinner tonight."

"Thank you, Oneechan." Akane said glad that another person was happy for her. "I'll go upstairs and change."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Akane." Kasumi slightly faltered this time. "I was doing laundry this morning and haven't got it all done yet. Your clothes are still drying right now."

"Well, I guess I can wear my uniform for a while longer." Akane said.

"Why don't you wear your new outfit that you bought yesterday?" The brown-haired girl suggested.

"I was saving that dress for a special occasion." The younger said thinking.

"Well, I think that your news is special occasion enough to wear it." Kasumi said smiling. "Would you like to have some lunch?"

"No, I'll go out for some in a bit." Akane, with a warm smile on her face, told her sister who had always taken care of her. "Arigato." She said and she headed upstairs to get changed.

Akane was soon dressed in a pale pink sun dress with a vine of yellow spring flowers that started on the left shoulder that went diagonally across her chest to the right and stopped at the bottom hem of the skirt with a very pretty set of yellow sandals that perfectly matched the dress.

"You look lovely, Akane." Kasumi told her. "You should go out and enjoy the rest of the day."

"OK. Thank you, Oneechan. I will." Akane said agreeing with her and with just a wave of bye, she stepped outside and began to walk and nearly bumped into someone.

"Akane!" Ryouga called out in surprise at finding the petite girl right in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, silly." Akane said smiling, very happy to see her friend. "What about you?"

Ryouga looked up at the house in front of him and realized that he was indeed standing in front of the Tendo house. He had been walking around Nerima almost all morning since Akane had left him as P-chan in her room. He had been looking for Ranma so that he could make him pay for the wrongs that he kept inflicting upon Akane. All of that was forgotten though when his eyes finally glanced at Akane. His eyes nearly dropped to the ground in shock of seeing how, well, kawaii she looked in her new sun dress.

"I, uh, well, I was. . . for a walk." Ryouga stuttered out as he tried desperately to keep the blush from rising into his face. "You look amazing."

"Thank you, Ryouga!" Akane said just about beaming at the compliment her friend had paid her. "So what are you doing for the day?"

"I don't really know." Ryouga laughed out nervously. "Wo. . .would you like to do something together, Akane?"

"Sure!" Akane asked feeling very glad that her day was looking to be a lot better than she had expected it to be as she enjoyed hanging out with her friend Ryouga. "What would you like to do?"

Ryouga's face fell as he had no idea what to do with Akane but he was still elated that he was going to be able to spend time with her without have forced to be splashed with cold water. "Well, it's lunch time. Would you like to get something to eat?"

"That sounds like a great idea, Ryouga!" She said agreeably. "Where would you like to eat?"

"Let's just walk for a bit and see where we go." The yellow-bandanna boy suggested as he began to lead the way.

As the two friends walked, they talked about the different places Ryouga was able to travel to and what was happening at school for Akane. She didn't quite tell him about her news though as she wanted to tell her family first. The young martial artist was fine with it and said he couldn't wait to hear it when she was ready to share with him. As they walked, they chatted and caught up with each as they enjoyed the lovely afternoon and even though they had been walking in the opposite direction from the Tendo house, the friendly couple somehow found themselves standing in front of Nekohaten. Ryouga, wanting to play the part of a perfect gentleman, opened the door for Akane to step inside first.

Mousse looked up as he finished busting the last table and saw two more customers walk through the door. "Good afternoon. Please have a seat and we'll be right with you."

"Hiya, Mousse." Akane greeted back. "Maybe you should put on your glasses. Ranma isn't here, is he?"

"Good afternoon, Akane." The Chinese boy said once again while slipping his glasses on and stepping away from the coat rack that he had first greeted. "No, Saotome is not here. Would you like to have a place and eat here?"

"No, not really. Ryouga and I just sort of wandered in here." Akane threw a glance to where the young martial artist was supposed to be standing beside her but realized that he wasn't there. "Where did he go?"

Akane went back outside quickly but did not see him anywhere. Mentally shrugging at how her day might not be going as well as she had hoped it would, she stepped back inside the Chinese restaurant to talk some more with her other friend. "Well, I guess I better go. I'll see you later this afternoon?"

"If you will wait a few minutes, Akane, my shift will be over and I can join you in lunch since Hibiki seems to have disappeared on you." The white-robed boy offered.

"That would be great!" Akane spoke happily. "Maybe I'll run into him later."

"Please wait and I will be join you in a bit." Mousse let her know and disappeared through the door to the back of the restaurant but was back out in just a few minutes. "Let's go before Colonge makes an appearance out here." He whispered to her and began to gently push her out of the store.

With Akane's mood lighted once again and once they were at least a block away from the Nekohaten, the two friends began to gaily chat with each other about anything and everything. Before long, they wondered into a small but well known eating establishment.

Ranma was sitting at the counter and had just glanced to see who had made the bell on the door ring by opening it when he realized who it was in mid-bite of his second Japanese pizza. Ukyo was in the middle of cooking another okinamiyaki just for her Ran-chan when she saw who had just stepped into her restaurant and was pleasantly surprised to see that was it indeed Akane, who looked extremely kawaii in her pretty sundress. Just as Ran-chan had called out, but it seemed that she was with someone. A smile broke out when the brown-haired girl realized who it was. She guessed that the rumors weren't just rumors. The pig-tailed young man was decidedly less enthusiastic.

"Hi Ranma" Akane greeted them quietly. "Hi Ukyo."

"Well, sit right up here at the bar, Akane, and have some home cooked okinamiyaki." Ukyo urged. "You too, Sugar."

"Thank you, Kounji." Mousse said and directed to pull a stool out for his friend.

"It's Ukyo, Sugar." The brown-haired young woman told him as she handed him a plate of fresh Japanese pizza and then started on another.

"So what ya doing together?" Ranma asked with more than a lil suspicion apparent in his tone.

"I was about to have lunch with Ryouga when we ran into Mousse at the Nekohaten but then he disappeared so Mousse decided to keep me company instead." She sat in between the two young men and waited for her serving.

"I won't be able to keep you company for long, Akane." Mousse said. "I have my eye doctor appointment in a few minutes."

Akane's smile became small and sad as she realized that for the rest of the afternoon she would be stuck with Ranma and Ukyo for company or just plain out be by herself. The last option was looking to be the better one as Ukyo continued to give her sly looks and suggestions of what a great couple she and Mousse would make and Ranma seemed to be in more than a bit surly mood as he scowled after each bite of his okinamiyaki.

"Oh, I was hoping that we could discuss more on the different styles of martial arts that China has, Mousse." Akane let her friend know.

Mousse was trying to his best to be polite and just hoped that Ranma wouldn't outright attack him in his brown-haired fiancee's restaurant. "If you like, you can accompany me and we can continue to talk."

"That would be very good." Akane accepted and felt much better about her afternoon. At least Mousse was almost always very good company.

Both Akane and Mousse were finished with their dishes as Ukyo served the pig-tailed martial artist another one and the Chinese young man noticed that Akane looked especially depressed at the moment.

"We must be going now or I will be late for my appointment." Mousse let his friend know and then turned to the other two at the bar. "I thank you for the wonderful meal, Ukyo and I will see you later, Saotome."

"See ya later, Ranma and Ukyo." Akane said as she stood up to leave with Mousse.

"Are you all right?" Mousse asked his friend once they were a bit away.

"I'm all right." Akane responded. "So where is this doctor?"

"Forgive me, Akane, but I told a lie. My appointment is not for another hour but it seemed that you did not really want to stay there." The white-robed young man confessed.

"Oh, Mousse, you didn't have to do that." The young Japanese girl told him.

"It's no problem at all." Mousse said smiling at her. "What would you like to do?"

"I don't know, Mousse." She said giving him a small smile. She was quite thankful to have such a good friend in the young Chinese man.

"You like very nice today, Akane." He let her know.

"Oh, thank you, Mousse!" Akane said gratefully and smiled at her friend's thoughtfulness.

She really is very pretty when she smiles but it's too bad that she doesn't always have a reason to smile, Mousse thought about his friend. "How about I treat you to some ice cream?"

"Really?" Akane said doing a full blown smile. "You don't have to."

"Tendo Akane, you are my friend and I would like to treat you to some ice cream."

"Thank you, Mousse! Let's go." Akane said and she began to gaily chat with her good friend. "I'll tell you my news once we get there!"

Unbeknownst to them, Ranma had quickly finished his okinamiyaki in one final bite, bid Ukyo a quick farewell and hurried out of sight of the couple, following behind them. He had heard the entire situation and couldn't believe it was happening. Mousse had lied to him and Ukyo so that he could go off and spend time with Akane alone. The nerve of that guy, fumed Ranma. If only he could get his hands on him once Akane wasn't in the way.

Just as the two entered the ice cream shop, Ranma was trying to plan on how he could listen in on their conversation without them knowing it. He had just decided on a plan to sneak in through the back and try to sit in the booth beside them when Shampoo landed right in front of him.

"Ranma! You see where Mousse go?" The young Chinese woman demanded from him.

Ranma would have stunned at the fact that Shampoo had just seen him and not glompped or run him over with a bike, except that he was too busy trying to hear what Akane's big news was.

"Listen, Shampoo, they're in there and I'm trying to hear what they're saying." Ranma told her, pointing them out to her.

"Shampoo go in there then!" The purple-haired girl declared but before she could go barging in there, Ranma grabbed her and held her back.

"Shampoo! We can't do that!" Ranma told her. "What would you tell them?! Let's just watch them and see what happens."

"Shampoo agree for now." She said and they both snuck in to get a closer look at what was happening between the two so-called friends.

"Congratulations, Akane." Mousse was saying. "It is a great honor they have bestowed upon you."

"Yes, the best part is that I can ask someone to go with me." Akane continued to explain. "I just don't know who to ask yet."

"It is time for my eye doctor appointment." Mousse let her know as he stood to help Akane up and the two young people walked out of the place once more chatting happily with each other with Ranma, who wanted to let his fist chat with Mousse, and Shampoo, who wasn't sure if she should have either Mousse or Akane chat with one of her bonbories, following after them.

"Ask what? What's she going to ask someone?!" Ranma wondered out loud. "Who's she going to ask?"

"Ranma! No worry about Akane asking right now. They getting away!" Shampoo pointed out to him as the other two began to walk and talk again.

Mousse and Akane rounded the corner of the block and then stepped into a doctor's office. Once inside, Mousse announced his arrival and within just a few minutes was ushered into the back to speak with the doctor. Akane simply sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting room, picked up a magazine and began to glance through it.

"What kitchen destroyer sticking around with Mousse for all of a sudden?" Shampoo muttered darkly as she stood with Ranma in the front of the building as he glanced through the windows to stare at Akane without being seen.

Akane began to look through the coffee table that housed a number of different magazines. She'd just chosen one that looked interesting when the secretary called to her. The blue-haired young lady stood up and approached the desk.

"Are they friends of yours, miss?" The secretary asked, pointing to the two people standing in front of the window.

"Um, not really." Akane responded, narrowing her eyes in anger at the two people. "But I do know them."

"I'm not trying to be mean but could you ask them to leave?" The secretary asked as kindly as she could. "If they're waiting for you and your boyfriend, they could wait for you inside but they can't stand in front of the building like that."

"Sure, no problem." Akane told her. She was too distracted in her anger to have noticed that the girl had said Mousse was her boyfriend and was soon barging out of the front door, making sure to push the door open as hard as she could so that it slammed right into Ranma's back and send him flying across the street. "Ranma! What are you doing?!" She screamed out. "And what are you doing here too, Shampoo?"

"What Shampoo do no business of Akane's." The purple-haired girl replied with a sniff of her nose.

"Well, Mousse has a doctor's appointment here and he asked me to accompany him here." Akane began to point out to her. "You're the one who has no business here!"

Shampoo was about to show Akane why Amazons were such revered fighters when Ranma had finally picked himself off the ground and made his way to where the females were standing.

"What are ya doing hangin' round duck boy so much?" The young man demanded to know of his fiancee.

"What are you doing following us?!" Akane threw right back at him.

"Yeah, well, uh, someone has to make sure you ain't goin' ta get kidnaped, ya tomboy!" Ranma said happy to find a thought to latch onto. "And duck boy sure ain't got the skills to do it!"

Akane opened her mouth to scream something back to her supposed fiancé but suddenly closed at just stared at him. It was this kind of situation that she had been hoping to avoid but yet here she was stuck in it.

Ranma had braced himself to be punted through the air as he used to be by Akane, when several minutes later Ranma realized that he was still on the ground and that his blue-haired fianceé hadn't moved either. She seemed oddly thoughtful or as Akane might have put it, Ranma thought to himself, she was pensive and seemed stuck in her thoughts.

Shampoo wasn't sure what to do, with the other two seemingly frozen in mid-action. She wasn't about to attack the Kitchen Destroyer when her Airen was watching but she really was getting sick of the fact that Akane basically kept insulting her Amazon warrior pride by still being alive. Obstacles were for killing after all. Besides, she was getting way too close to Mousse, ran a stray thought through her mind.

Just then, Mousse stepped out of the building and was instantly bewildered. "Akane, what are you . . .Shampoo, my darling! You're . . .Saotome? What are you doing here??"

"Mousse, why you leave restaurant and leave all work for Shampoo!" Shampoo found herself yelling loudly. It was a valid reason for Shampoo to have followed Mousse after all and she was going to use it. It wasn't like she would follow him because she didn't like the idea of him spending so much time with Violent Girl after all, cause then it might give the idea that Shampoo was jealous and Amazon warriors did not ever get jealous.

"Mousse, is your appointment already done?" Akane asked nicely to try and avoid anymore unnecessary conflict.

"Yes, I'm done." Mousse began to tell his friend. "All I have to do is decide whether I want to do it or not."

"What Mousse taking about?" The Chinese girl demanded to know. She was quite angry to have been brushed by like that just because Akane had spoken.

"Mousse, I need to get going." Akane let him know, not able to hide the anxiety that she was beginning to feel.

Mousse saw the distress his friend was feeling. "Yes, we should. We have just enough time to get some sparring in."

"Oh, really?" The blue-haired girl happily said. "Yes, let's get going! See you later, Ranma, Shampoo."

"Saotome. Shampoo, my beloved, I will see you later." Mousse said nodding his farewell to the both of them and both he and Akane began to walk away.

Ranma and Shampoo were completely stunned. In fact if they were anymore stunned, they would statues, as the other two disappeared from their sights. Akane and Mousse quietly walked back to the Tendo dojo so that the two friends could continue their sparring sessions together.

Just as the got to the front door, Akane turned to her friend. "Hey, Mousse. I know you said that you made a deal with Colonge that you help clean up the restaurant at night so that you're free to spar with me in the afternoons but do you think that tonight, you could stay for dinner?"

"May I ask why, Akane?" Mousse politely queried.

"It's just that I'm not sure how the rest of my family will take my news and I'd really like to have your support when I tell them." The blue-haired girl told her friend.

"If you would really like me to, Akane, I will stay for dinner." Mousse responded.

"Thanks, Mousse." Akane let him know. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem, Akane." Mousse said and the two finally stepped into the house.

"Tadima!" The young girl called out.

"You're back." Kasumi answered as she stepped into the hallway to greet her sister. "I'll be starting dinner in just a few minutes if you can go to the market for me. We're out of soy sauce it seems. Oh, hello, Mousse. How are you today?"

"I am well, Kasumi." The Chinese boy politely answered. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking." The brown-haired young woman responded. "Has Akane told you her news?"

"Yes, she has and it's very good." Mousse said smiling at his friend.

"Onee-chan, is it OK if Mousse stays for dinner?" Akane asked with a smiler on her face now.

"Of course, Akane." Kasumi said. "It's your celebration dinner tonight, after all."

"So you needed soy sauce?" Akane asked.

"Yes, here is the money." The eldest sister said, handing her some money.

"Mousee, would you like to wait here, or would you like to come with me?" The female martial artist asked.

"I will accompany you." The white-robed boy said and they began to go right back out of the door and head to the local convenience store.

They had just stepped out of the store with Mousse carrying a small bag in his hand when Ranma finally spotted them and landed right in front of them. "What's going on here?!"

Akane looked her fiancee oddly. "We're coming from the market."

"Where's the bag?" Ranma continued to demand.

Mousse deftly pulled it out of his sleeve and held it up to the pig-tailed boy. "Would you like to know what we got?"

"Uh, no, that's not necessary." Ranma stammered out in his embarrassment. He knew he was being overly anxious but he just couldn't seem to stop himself at the moment. "I'll take that Mousse. Come on, Akane. Kasumi doesn't want us to be late for dinner."

"Well, then we better hurry, Mousse." Akane said and began to pick up her pace.

Mousse swiftly fell into step with her and they started to walk away. Realizing he was being left behind, Ranma went to catch up with them.

"Mousse ain't coming ta dinner, is he?" Ranma wanted to know.

"Yes, he is, Ranma." She let him know as they all continued to walk back to the Tendo home.

Ranma wasn't even given the chance to respond as they had already arrived. Akane and Mousse quickly made their way through the front door and into the kitchen.

"Oh, my, you're back already." Kasumi greeted them quickly as she hurried around the kitchen. "Domo Arigato, Akane, Mousse. It'll be just a little bit longer before dinner is done. I'm afraid since I sent you to the market that you won't have enough time to spar before, Akane."

"That's OK, Kasumi. Anything that can help with your home cooking. We didn't mind, did we, Mousse?" Akane assured her sister.

"Not at all, Kasumi. It smells delicious." Mousse agreed.

"What would you like to do until dinner?" Akane turned to her friend and the two left the kitchen in the capable hands of Kasumi who had already gone back to her cooking. "Would you like to see my room? I can lend you that book I told you about earlier."

"That sounds like a fun idea." The Chinese boy said smiling at his friend and they began to walk upstairs.

Akane avoided walking back through the living room to see if Ranma was still hanging out around. She just didn't want to deal with his mayhem at the moment. They were just about to enter the room with the wooden duck sign hanging from the door when the door next to it opened.

"Well, well, sis. Sneaking a boy into your room already?" Nabiki asked with a smirk on her face. "What would Daddy, or even, Ranma, say about that?"

"They wouldn't say anything, Nabiki." Akane said with a frown on her face. "I'm just getting a book that Mousse said he wanted to borrow."

"Wouldn't Kasumi tell you it isn't proper to take a young man to your room?" Nabiki continued to egg on her sister.

"Kasumi is fine with it. Mousse is just a friend." Akane said firmly, but then had a brilliant thought. "Besides, Ranma is home. I thought it better that I not leave him and Ranma alone in the same room with each other for too long or Ranma might start a fight with him, but if you really want to pay for those damages, I can ask Mousse to wait downstairs."

"No, it's fine." Nabiki said with her usual stoic manner and hid very well that Akane had gotten her on that one. "Just keep it quiet it in there. I have an important phone call to make."

"Not a problem, Nabiki." Akane answered and she opened the door for Mousse to step in.

She showed him around her space and they talked over several other things for a little while. It wasn't the greatest place in the world but it was Akane's own little area and she was proud of it. It screamed Akane with the dumbbells in the corner on the floor with the bokken laying across them. The walls were white like the rest of the house with a poster on the wall of her favorite music group. Her sheets and pillows were yellow, her favorite color. Her desk was pushed right up to the window just to the left of her bed. Her books, notebooks and such for school were laid out on the desk along with a picture frame of her mother. Right next to her desk was her bookshelf that held her martial arts trophies she won when she was younger and her various books, which is where Akane was now standing beside.

"Here it is, Mousse." The Japanese girl said as she handed said book to her Chinese friend. "I'm sorry about my family. You know how Nabiki is. She's right though. We shouldn't stay in here for too long."

"It is all right, Akane." Mousse said conversationally as he deftly hid the book in one of the many pockets inside of his robe's sleeve. "You know how Cologne is and in Amazon culture, the entire tribe is considered family."

"I guess that's another thing we got in common-crazy families." Akane said and she couldn't help laughing when they stepped out into the hallway.

Of course, that was the moment when Ranma had been heading upstairs. He hadn't been looking for his fiancee though and he definitely didn't care what she was doing with the duck boy. He could care less. Of course not, it was just that Kasumi had sent him to tell Akane and Mousse that dinner would be ready in a few more minutes. She sure was going through a lot of trouble but it smelled really good and she had cooked a whole lot.

"What's blind boy doin' in your room?!" Ranma angrily demanded to know.

"I was getting a book for him that he wanted to borrow to read." Akane said with a slight sigh. She just knew the situation wouldn't turn out well and had to remind herself that her mallet wasn't the way to solve things, as much as she wanted, as much as Ranma would deserve it. Her day just kept going up and down. The kami's just couldn't let her have a middle ground for a while. Akane let out another soft sigh.

"Saotome, I would suggest you drop matters." Mousse suggested bluntly as he pulled the book out of his sleeve to show him.

"I suggest ya look in the right direction, blind boy!" Ranma said as he gave a slight shove at the Chinese martial artist to drive the point into his head even further. "Akane, ya shouldn't be letting him in your room!"

"Ranma, what's the difference of you being in my room whenever I help you with our homework and Mousse being in my room as I get a book for him?" Akane wanted to know, as she tried desperately to keep her temper. Depending on his answer, the pig-tailed martial artist might just get punted down the stairs. She would do her usual of sending him through the air but she didn't want to have to explain to her sister of why she was the one causing the property damage after questioning her on it just a few minutes earlier.

"I'm your fiancé! He's not!" Ranma yelled once more and he was suddenly struck with the fact of what he had just declared. The words 'oh, crap' started running through his head and of course, their fathers did hear it.

"Ranma, m'boy!" Saotome Genma yelled out from the bottom of the stairs. "It's about time you accepted matters! Tendo, it's a joyous day and we should celebrate!"

"Yes, Ranma, you will make my baby girl happy, won't you?" Soun asked from behind his friend.

"Oh, Father, they're too young!" Kasumi tried to remind the men as she appeared from behind them.

"Ranma! You my airen! Not Kitchen Destroyer's!" Shampoo yelled as she came crashing through the front door, literally.

"Shampoo, I'll be charging the Nekohaten for that door." Nabiki said as she popped her head out of her room to see what all the commotion was.

"I ain't no one's! Especially not yours, Shampoo!" Ranma began to yell again as he tried desperately to gain his wits back. "This whole engagement thing was your idea, Pops! I wouldn't have gotten engaged to such a macho, pig headed tomboy!"

Akane just stood there, feeling more and more miserable and decided to stop it. "Everyone, I have news! I'm going to America this summer!"

"WHAT?!" Ranma, Soun and Genma shouted in one voice. Shampoo just stood there smirkng at the idea of her one rival to her Airen's heart would be gone.

"I'm allowed to take an escort with me and I'd like it if Mousse came with me." The blue-haired girl continued speaking more quietly this time. "My teacher noticed the hard work I'd been putting into classes lately. This summer, they're sending a group of students to America to experience their culture and I was one of the chosen to go."

"WHAT?!" Ranma, Soun, Genma shouted again and this time, Shampoo had joined in.

"Mousse no go!" She added.

"Why not, my beloved?" Mousse asked curiously.

"Need Mousse help in restaurant." Shampoo said very decisively, as if there was no argument whatsoever.

"Well, it's up to Mousse if he wants to go." Akane said calmly and she looked over at her friend.

Both of them knew that Akane had originally planned on asking Ranma on going but he didn't seem all that great company for her lately. Mousse didn't mind being the fall back choice. In fact, he was sort of enjoying it. He hadn't expected Shampoo to be so against it so maybe she did feel something more for him than she let on.

"I would not mind at all going with you, Akane." Mousse made his decision.

"I'll tell you more about the trip over dinner." Akane told him as she began to walk past everyone to head down the stairs and wait for dinner.

Mousse was following right behind her. Nabiki began to follow behind him as she wanted to hear all the details about this. Soun had instantly turned into tears at this news that his youngest daughter was leaving for America. Genma was trying his best to console him for once as he schemed for ways to get his son married to his friend's daughter. Shampoo had just turned around and instantly began marching back in the direction of the Nekohaten. She needed to discuss things with her grandmother.

"Yes, dinner is ready." Kasumi said as she watched her youngest sister walk by and then turned her gaze to the young pig-tailed boy.

Ranma stood there, completely stunned and said the last words anyone would have expected to hear from his mouth. "I'm not hungry right now, Kasumi."

He then proceeded to head into his room and shut the door behind him.


	6. Truths Revealed & Still Hidden

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I won't even dream about owning it in fear of being sued.

_AN: So, it took me a while to get this up, as usual, but at least it wasn't as long as last time. Well, once again, I have a legit excuse. In case, you didn't bother to look at my author page (and I don't blame you if you don't cause I don't always remember to do so for other people's stories), I spilled hot tea on my laptop so half of my keyboard no longer worked. I had to order a replacement part and that took about two weeks. Everything works now so I'm able to get back to work. _

_I also took a while in contemplating whether I wanted to throw in Konatsu and Akari into the mix or just keep it as the main cast and then hint at Ukyo and Ryuoga ending up together. I figured that if I really wanted to do things right though, that I had to keep everyone and it became a hodge podge of things. To be honest, I don't have a plan on what I'm doing with the characters. Just trying to put my own spin on things, I guess. This chapter is now the longest one I've written so far. I spent a lil more time than I have been describing the sparring sessions and the moves so I hope the effort shows. Anyway, I'm not totally happy with it as I was with the others but I felt it better not to wait months to post, so here's the result. I hope you like it. I give greatful thanks to my beta, partner in crime, I owe you cookies, kev! As always, read and review! _

It was Sunday, so there was no school that day. Akane lay in bed thinking back to her 'celebration dinner,' and she used the word celebration loosely in its meaning to describe last night's dinner. Her father had spent most of the night crying over the fact that 'his baby girl had abandoned her fiancee' so that his 'dreams of uniting the two schools were forever dashed into a thousand pieces.' Daddy can be so over dramatic sometimes, Akane thought to herself. Saotome Genma, in between filling his bowl to heaping and then promptly emptying its contents into his stomach, had cried right along with him. Nabiki had continued to stare at her as if she were a horse ready to be bet on. The only saving graces had been Kasumi and Mousse. They were the only people who had chatted excitedly about her future trip and congratulated her. Ranma hadn't even showed up for dinner. Ranma never missed dinner, and he had been home, so why hadn't he showed up for one of Kasumi's best meals? Out of all of the reaction she would have expected from the pig-tailed boy, him having no reaction at all was just strange. She had been too busy dealing with her father's dramatics to see how her announcement of her great news had affected her inazuke. Akane just didn't know. P-chan had once again disappeared on her and she could have really used the comfort of her pet last night. Well, Akane couldn't spend the entire day in her bed, final exams started Monday. She had to study and make sure that Ranma studied too. She then got up and began to get changed for her usual morning jog.

Ranma lay in bed and listened to the noises of his inazuke in the room next to him as she got up and went about her morning routine. Though he'd pretended to be asleep when his father had crawled into bed later in the evening, the young Japanese martial artist hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. He'd been too busy thinking of ways to kick the crap out of a certain long-haired, white-robed, basically blind, Chinese Amazon martial artist. What in the world was Mousse doing anyway? He was supposed to be in love with Shampoo and yet, here he was going on a trip with his fiancee.

Ranma couldn't believe Akane was going to America for the summer. The school year would be over in just a few days actually, now that he'd stop and thought about it. Actually, it was cause he'd heard Akane's father scream about things from all the way downstairs. It was the first time ever that Ranma was glad about Soun's melodramatics. If the older man hadn't been so loud, Ranma wouldn't have heard the specifics of the trip, cause there was no way he could sit down there and pretend to celebrate Akane going on a trip with just Mousse. She'd be away from him for 3 whole weeks, where there was only Duck Boy to keep her company and watch over her. Well, there were also going to be a few teachers and some of the other classmates who'd qualify to go with their escorts but none of them were martial artists. They couldn't rescue Akane if she got kidnaped by some crazy prince. Mousse had never defeated him so Ranma doubted if Mousse could really keep his inazuke safe. 3 weeks was a long time. He and Akane had never been separate before like that. They'd always been stuck together from one situation to another, and now they wouldn't see each other for 3 weeks. Ranma just didn't know what to think. And Damn it all, he'd skipped dinner! He had missed one of Kasumi's great home cooked meals. A Saotome never thought well on an empty stomach, and with that final thought, he decided to let his old man to keep sleeping. There was just no way he was willing to deal with him on such an empty stomach.

Ranma got up to head down to the kitchen. The young Japanese martial artist dressed in Chinese clothes found the eldest Tendo sister cooking breakfast as usual. She looked up as he entered and saw how disheveled the young man looked.

"Good morning, Ranma." Kasumi said cheerfully.

"G'mornin', Kasumi." Ranma mumbled back as he opened the fridge hoping for hope that there were some leftovers.

"If you wait a little bit, breakfast will be done." The brown-haired young lady let him know. "I know you're probably hungry so I made extra."

"Thanks, Kasumi." Ranma said gratefully.

Just then, Akane stepped through the front door and into the kitchen, feeling much better than she had before. "Good morning, Kasumi." Her smile faltered for just a second when she saw her fiancé standing there too. "Good morning to you too, Ranma."

"Good morning, Akane." Ranma said sounding only slightly doleful.

"Well, I'll head into the furo now, Kasumi." The youngest said letting the oldest know.

"All right, Akane." She acknowledged and went back to cooking. "Ranma, why don't you set the table for me?"

"Sure, Kasumi." Ranma replied and headed into the living room to do as he was asked.

As Kasumi began to scoop the rice from the rice cooker into a large bowl, she began contemplating how to make the situation work. She just knew that Akane had meant to ask Ranma to go on the trip with her. Being away from everyone and everything would have been good for the 2 of them. They might have actually gotten along and been able to have a decent relationship together for those 3 weeks. That was exactly what Akane wanted. She wanted a stress free trip but with the chaos that happened around Ranma it would have been difficult. Look at what happened when Akane tried to tell everyone about it. There was no blame for Akane asking Mousse to go but still, maybe there was a way to fix things. She just wasn't sure how to help her youngest sister and she really did want to help make things better for her. Akane used to be her closest friend but things had happened. Akane focusing more and more on martial arts, developing that crush on Dr. Tofu, Ranma and his father breezing into their odd little ward of Nerima. Kasumi herself was slowly spending more and more time borrowing books and getting to know Dr. Tofu and with two more occupants in the house, there was just more house work for her to take care of. She didn't mind it but she missed her best friend. They just didn't have the time to spend with each other just talking like they used to and though they hadn't talked about it Kasumi knew that Akane was making a real effort to keep her temper unlike the last time she'd ask her little sister to not hit anyone out of anger. Kasumi felt that little breach of contract had been partly her fault. With Ranma and his father being new to the house at the time, she just hadn't the time to sit down with her littlest sister and really talk about her temper like she should of. It was all musings of the past though and it was time to come back to the present.

It was time to take the food out for everyone to eat. She'd see how breakfast went and go from there. Everyone was sitting down at the table by the time Akane came out and as soon as she sat down, the morning meal began. Within seconds, the huge piles of food that had been on the table were reduced to just crumbs. Ranma was indeed hungry. Usually it took at least 60 seconds.

"Where is Nabiki?" Soun asked.

"She got up early and went to meet some friends for breakfast so they could study right afterwards." The eldest daughter answered. "Akane, what are you planning on doing today?"

"I'll be studying today too, Kasumi." Akane let her know. "You should spend some time studying too, Ranma."

Ranma's head seemingly popped up from his bowl as he realized that Akane had said something to him. He quickly processed his options. He wasn't really in the mood to study but she was right about the final exams coming up and he definitely didn't want to fail those. Besides, he could spend some time with Akane without too much arguing if he asked to study with her.

"Uh, yeah, Akane." Ranma began to say dejectedly. He couldn't sound too happy to be in the same room with his fiancee and to be studying just an evil necessity after all. "I think I'm gonna need some help so can I study with you?"

"I'll bring lunch up to you two later." Kasumi said smiling.

"Arigato, Kasumi." Akane said gratefully at her sister's caring after taking her last bite of breakfast. "Come on, Ranma, if you really want my help with studying."

The young man shoved the last bites of food using the speed that training as a martial arts had given him and quickly followed his short-haired fiancee upstairs and into his own room. Grabbing his book bag, he then headed into his fiancee's bedroom. Akane had already brought out her school bag and was pulling her books out to spread out on her desk. The chair had already been pulled away from the desk a little bit and Ranma immediately went over and sat on it. He always sat on the chair and Akane always sat on the edge of her bed. Bad things would happen would if Ranma sat on Akane's bed. Well, better get down to business, Ranma thought.

"So what do we need to do first?" Ranma asked.

"The first test we have is history." She told him as she brought out her notebooks then and the two young betrothed spent the rest of the morning studying.

In actuality, the couple tried to study. Akane did a slightly better job at it. Ranma was a bit more distracted, though to give him credit, he did try. It was always difficult for him to concentrate on school work since it didn't really interest him too much and it was even more difficult to stay focused with his inazuke so close to him. All the weirdness happening between them definitely wasn't helping matters either. Every few minutes he couldn't help but glance out of the corner of his eye at her while pretending to read the next chapter. He made sure to look right back to his page when she started to look over at him to make sure he was actually reading. It was a roundabout cycle but Ranma couldn't help himself at the moment. Akane tried to stay focused as much as she could but was quite confused about things between her and Ranma. They had finally made it to the year 1854 when Japan had signed the treaty to open its port to the United States, when a voice called.

"Ranma? Akane? I've brought you lunch." The long haired young lady let them know.

"Oh, thank you, Kasumi." Akane said as she stood up to grab the tray from her older sister. "I was just thinking of taking a break."

"You've been studying for hours." Kasumi said with a slightly mischievous smile on her face. "Father didn't want me to come and interrupt you two up here. He'd been hoping that you two were discussing the possibility of grandchildren because it'd been so quiet. I reminded him that it wasn't proper at all though and told him that he'd better not give you a hard time for just studying up here or you might never graduate, or go to college for a degree and might never be able to take over the dojo like he wants."

"Kasumi, you didn't!" Akane said trying not to burst out laughing after setting the tray down on the hastily cleared spot on her desk.

She looked over her sister, noticing the odd look on her face and odd tone to her voice. It wasn't the usual serene mask that she'd been wearing of late as she did the house work and took care of everyone. It was the real Kasumi who showed her joking side, who'd been hiding for a very long time, who Akane missed talking to, who used to be Akane's best friend.

"I did." Kasumi said proudly, also trying her best not to laugh out loud.

"Onee-chan, I have to go shopping for some things for my trip. Would you like to go shopping with me this afternoon?" Akane asked with a smile of her own. "We can stop for a bowl of mint chocolate chip with hot fudge, whipped topping and 2 cherries on top."

At the suggestion of ice cream, Kasumi couldn't help herself and stood up to hug her very dear and missed best friend. It had been one of their favorite things to do together. After an afternoon together of shopping, walking together or just hanging out they had always gotten that exact make of ice cream. They hadn't a chance go out together like that for a long while.

"I've love to, Imouto-chan. I have to get back downstairs and serve lunch to Father and Mr. Saotome. I'll come back up in a little while to take the tray." The oldest sister said. "Don't study too hard now."

"We're almost done." Akane let her know and Kasumi went back downstairs.

"What was that all about?" Ranma basically demanded to know. He nearly winced when he realized how harsh it sounded. It was just that he'd never seen either of them so open before and it had surprised him. Well, more like shocked him into a foot-in-the-mouth stupor but he'd never backed down before so he wouldn't back down then.

"It was girl talk. You wouldn't understand, Ranma." Akane said coolly and just like that her demeanor was back to the stubborn tomboy that Ranma was used to. She then grabbed one of the bowls and handed it to him. "Here. Let's eat so that we can finish studying soon."

He didn't know what to make of that instant change. "Um, yeah, let's eat." They ate silently for a few minutes but Ranma didn't feel comfortable in the quiet for once. "So, uh, how much studying do we have left to do?"

"We're almost done with history. We'll need to study science next." She let him know. "We just have to finish another few paragraphs to finish up the 19th century and that's it."

"Great! If that's all, then I think I'm going to head to the arcade for a bit." Ranma said happily at the thought of the rest of the day for freedom. "Wanna come with me?" He added hesitantly at the end.

"I said we're almost done." The blue-haired girl reminded him with more than a little humor in her voice. "There's still science to review."

"But Akane, we've been studying all morning!" Ranma nearly pouted at her.

"Unlike you, Ranma, I care about my grades!" Akane said in a very haughty tone but the humor in her eyes and the uplifting of the corners of her mouth ruined the effect and she knew that it didn't work. She was just too happy to have her best friend in her sister back. "Besides I can't risk not studying for these. Not only do I want to graduate but if I don't do well enough, they might give up my slot for the trip to someone else if they do better. I'm done eating. Are you done? I want to take the tray back down and save Kasumi a trip coming back up here."

Ranma looked at the empty bowl in his hand and placed it back onto the tray. "Yeah, all done."

"Great, I'll be right back and we'll finish studying." She let him know and was then out the door with the tray in hand. When she came back, without food tray in hand, she sat back down and grabbed her science book. "Ready?"

With a nod of assent from the pig-tailed boy, the young would-be couple were back with their noses buried in books and their eyes trading secret glances. About an hour later, Ranma shut his book.

"Akane, I'm done. I can't stand it anymore. I can't take studying for another minute. Final exams or not!" Ranma spoke loudly.

"All right, Ranma." Akane agreed. "I'm done studying too." She then started to clean up her mess of notebooks, pens and books.

Ranma began to do the same but he had something in mind in the meanwhile. "Hey, Akane. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it, Ranma?" Akane asked curious to what was going on with her forced-upon fiancé.

"Do you really want to go on that trip to America this summer?" He questioned her quietly.

"Well, yes, of course, I do." The blue-haired Japanese girl answered as she finished putting everything away and her desk was clear except for a few usual things. "It's a great opportunity and I've always wanted to travel and see different places."

"Do you have to go with Mousse though?" Ranma blurted out in question. He nearly smacked himself in the face as he hadn't meant to ask that last one.

Akane hesitated. She wasn't sure if she should be honest about that enquiry. She had really wanted to ask Ranma to go but everyone would have made it into such a big deal and he himself would have turned it into an all out fight and that was exactly what she wanted to avoid. Besides, she didn't know at all if Ranma would have really wanted to go with her. She just wasn't sure how he'd he take the news though so she'd just leave part of the truth out of it.

"Well, I wasn't sure who else I should ask." The blue-haired girl started to say. "I know my sisters would have liked to go, but as much as Kasumi would have liked to go she would have hated leaving the house for so long, and Nabiki would have killed to go but the trip leaves before the start of that prep course that's so hard to get into that she wanted to go to. Yuka and Sayuri already have plans with their families. Why do you ask, Ranma?"

Ranma nearly broke out into hives with the asking of that last question. He hadn't thought that she'd ask him why he was asking her about the stupid trip. The fact that she apparently hadn't even thought about asking him to join her irked him more than he thought it would, so he did the most natural thing in the world.

He kicked his foot into this mouth once again and nearly swallowed it. "No reason at all, ya tomboy! See if I care if you go on that trip with duck boy for the next three weeks! I hope you have a great time without me! He can't protect ya so if you get kidnaped or something, don't expect me to come and rescue ya!"

Akane could only stare at the begrudging man she was supposed to one day marry if her father had anything to do with things. They were getting along so well for the day, which was definitely a new Nerima record and she hadn't wanted to ruin it. They hadn't argued at all. They had actually joked a little about the amount of studying that needed to be done. It hadn't been much at all but they'd done it without Ranma saying something mean and without Akane wanting to throw a dumbbell at him. Though she'd expected it, had figured on every single word he'd utter on the matter, it still hurt. She felt heartbroken, and it showed on her face but she refused to be weak because of it.

"All right, Ranma, I will and I'll be fine. Now get out of my room." She said coldly.

Ranma nearly ran out of her room after grabbing his stuff in record speed. He doubted anyone would have thought to use the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken as a packing technique but that's why his school was Anything Goes. Besides, there was no way the Japanese boy could have stayed in that room with his fiancee looking so sad and scary. A part of him thought that he ought to stay and try to fix things with her. He hadn't really meant it like that. He wasn't sure what he meant really. He'd just opened his mouth and those words came tumbling out, but he had no idea on how to fix things. Ranma knew that by staying he'd more than likely just make it worse. He was never good at handling girls when they were crying, most especially Akane when she cried so Ranma rushed into his room as if a cat was chasing him through a rain storm. Add onto the fact with everything that had been going on lately, he'd screwed up royally, like the size of China kind of mistake.

Akane stood there unmoving for the 2.37 seconds it took for Ranma to grab his stuff into his school bag and was out of her room. She knew that if she took even 1 glance at her inazuke, she would break out in tears and she just couldn't have that anymore. When he'd finally gone, she shut the door behind him, sat on her bed and though she was alone she still refused to let the tears fall. After a minute or 2, she finally looked up and realized that someone was knocking on her door.

"Akane, are you OK?" Kasumi called through the door.

Wiping her face to make sure that there were no tears showing, the youngest Tendo sister opened the door. "Yes, I'm all right, Onee-chan."

"I was coming upstairs when I saw Ranma run into his room and then you closed the door. Are you sure you're all right, Imouto-chan?" The brown-haired sister asked feeling concerned for her younger sibling.

"Yes, I'll be fine, Kasumi." Akane let her know and gave her oldest sister a much needed hug.

"Let's get out of the house for a while. I think we both need a little bit of time away from here." Kasumi suggested as she returned the hug.

"Let's go then." Akane said and began to lead them downstairs.

They stopped by Kasumi's room first so that she could take off her apron and grab her purse. Just before walking out the door they stopped by the living room.

"Father, Akane and I will be out for the afternoon. I'll be back in time to make dinner." Kasumi let him know and before the tears of the father had even a chance to fall, the 2 sisters were out the door, down the street and very happily chatting away.

As they walked in and our of different stores for the next few hours, the sisters talked about what had been going on recently and not so recent. Akane told of her recent insights about herself, her dealings with Ranma and her newfound but refreshing friendship with Mousse. In turn, Kasumi spoke of her own recent insights about herself and of her family and even of her few dealings with Dr. Tofu. They found a few new outfits for Akane to wear on her trip and a few other much needed supplies that she would need while being away for 3 weeks and an ocean seperate from home. At the moment, they were sorting through the luggage for a small bag that Akane could put her toiletries inside of.

"Oh Kasumi! Everyone knows that you and Dr. Tofu are made for each other." Akane pointed out. "He only goes nuts around you. He's absolutely crazy about you! You both need to get over your shyness and go out on a date."

"What about you and Ranma!" Kasumi shot right back though still in that kind tone of hers with only a little bit of the edge in it. "You are both so busy avoiding each other and arguing with each other that neither of you have any idea how each other feels about the other."

"You know my situation is so much more difficult." Akane reminded her oldest sister patiently. "Dr. Tofu doesn't have multiple fiancees. Why don't you just ask him to lunch or something?"

"Well, he did have multiple fiancees that one time when his mother came into town." Kasumi said teasingly. "It wouldn't be proper for me to ask him to lunch. Besides he'd go ballistic if I did."

"Onee-chan, don't remind me." The blue-haired young woman nearly groaned. "I was only doing that to make sure he'd still be around for you and well, we could ease into the idea of you and him having lunch together."

"How would we do that?" The brown-haired woman asked and they began to discuss different options in answer to her question.

Meanwhile, Ranma had decided to do as he'd said he wanted and was at the arcade playing different games. It wasn't the most productive thing he could be doing but it kept his mind off things. After all, every martial artist needed a little bit of time off, no matter what his pop said. It wasn't all that long before Ranma got bored with the different gaming machines. Well, it was more like he was out of his extra spending money. He was tempted to call up one of his friends but knew they were probably still studying. It had been a while since he'd eaten so he decided to head over to Uc-chan's for an afternoon snack.

The moment the pig-tailed young man stepped through the door and the bell rang, the male-looking person glanced up and smiled at him. "Ran-chan! What would you like today?"

"Hey, Uc-chan." Ranma replied as he marched right up to his usual spot right in front of the grill where a girl dressed as a guy cooked up Japanese pizza. "Hey, Konatsu."

"Good day, Ranma." The female dressed man greeted before he was back to work serving the few other customers already sitting at the tables.

The pig-tailed boy wasn't given much of a chance to talk as a hot okinamiyaki was placed right in front of him. Being starved half to death, he dug with gusto right into it.

"Oh, Ranma, I was thinking that since Akane would be gone next week, you and I could go to the beach together. I could sell some okinamiyaki in the morning and then in the afternoon we could wander around and wait for the sunset together." Ukyo suggested as she continued to cook another of her famous creations and glanced at her fiancé trying to will him to accept the subtle offer as a date.

Ranma, however, was thoroughly engrossed in his own thoughts and hadn't gotten the hint about going out together and brushed it off. "Pop and I go to the beach with the Tendos every summer."

"But I think it'd just be fun just you and me, Ran-chan." Ukyo proposed as she pushed her subtlety to just being blatant.

As the male-thought-to-be-female ninja continued to wait on the few other customers, he also kept his eye on what was happening at the grill. He was absolutely in love with Ukyo-sama and so would never say anything to intentionally hurt her or insult but he couldn't help but wonder why she was so blind to the fact that Ranma only thought of her as a friend. It was obvious he cared for her, but it was only as a sister, but Ukyo-sama just couldn't seem to accept it and why couldn't she see that her waiter-dressed-as-a-waitress was right there for her? There was nothing he could do though except be right there for her and Konatsu was more than willing to wait for the brown-haired okinamiyaki cook. For the time being, he could only keep watching as Ukyo kept trying to think of ways for her and Ranma to spend time together as more than just friends and Ranma just distractedly kept turning her down each and every time.

At the Cat Café, Mousse was once again busy busing tables as he watched his purple-haired goddess while she waited on the customers. She was, of course, ignoring his longing look at her. The male Amazon glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was still about half an hour before he could head to the Tendo house. If someone had told him a week ago that he'd become such good friends with Tendo Akane so that he looked forward to being around her everyday, he would have called them a liar and said that Saotome had set them up to make a fool of him. It was true though and it was odd but it was nice to have someplace different to go to and to have someone different to talk to. Plus, it seemed to bug Shampoo and make her notice him more.

"No time for standing still, foolish duck boy!" She told him as she sauntered right in front of him to block his gaze to the time piece.

"Of course not, my beautiful goddess." Mousse said as he watched her walk away.

Just then, the bell that hung over the door rang as someone stepped into the restaurant. Actually, it was 2 someones Mousse realized as he recognized the two people as Tendo Akane and Tendo Kasumi.

"Hello, Akane. Good afternoon, Kasumi. How may I help you two?" The white-robed boy politely greeted.

"Hi, Mousse!" Akane cheerfully returned the greeting. "How are you today?"

"I am fine." Mousse answered his friend. "How are you and Kasumi today?"

"We're doing well, Mousse." Kasumi told him with her serene smile in place and she began to rattle off a long list of different ramen dishes for take-out. "Could it be delivered to our house in about an hour?"

"It's no problem at all." Mousse replied as he quickly took down the order.

"Mousse, Akane and I are about to go for some ice cream. Would you like to join us?" Kasumi kindly asked the younger man.

"I would very much like to join you but I'll have to ask Colonge." Mousse told them and turned around to head into the backroom where the old Amazon leader would be.

The Chinese boy needn't go far though, cause as soon as he turned around, a hockey puck was thrown at him. Though Mousse tried to reach his hand up and catch it, it was in vain. As the puck slammed right into his forehead and he laid on the ground flat on his back, the young martial artist realized that it was Cologne who'd found his missing hockey puck.

Cologne almost cringed when the puck smacked right into the male Amazon's head but of course, she couldn't show too much emotion. He was so close that he almost caught it but close wasn't enough. He was getting faster bit by bit but it was slow progress. At least it was slow compared to Son-in-Law. Then again, just about anyone was slow compared to Son-in-Law.

"Good afternoon, Cologne. Would it be all right if Mousse came with us?" Kasumi spoke cheerfully to the old Amazon lady.

"Mousse no can go." Shampoo interrupted into the conversation as she came back out to the front room. "He busy help serve customers."

"Mind your manners, Shampoo!" Cologne sharply warned her great-granddaughter and then turned to the Tendo matriarch. Well, technically Akane, being the warrior of the family, would be the matriarch but she was still too young to be named so, which made Kasumi, by default, the head of the family until then. Besides, Akane was still considered an obstacle between Shampoo and Son-in-Law, though if she ever trained to her full potential the Japanese girl would far surpass her granddaughter and easily keep up with Ranma. "Hello, Kasumi. I'll send your order with Shampoo later and you can take Mousse with you once he gets up."

"Thank you very much, Colongne." Kasumi spoke politely, just as the Chinese boy was picking himself up from off the ground. "Are you all right, Mousse?"

"Uggh." Mousse could only groan in answer as he sat up rubbing his forehead where there was sure to be a red mark. He swore one day that he'd get even with the mummied monkey remains that called itself an Amazon Elder.

"You better be back in time to close up the shop." The old Amazon woman warned the young martial artist.

"Yes, Honored Elder." Mousse said hoping that he didn't sound as insolent as he felt toward her right at the moment.

"Now get going then." Cologne barked at him. "See you later, Kasumi and Akane."

"Bye, Cologne." Both the Tendo girls said as they walked out with the Chinese boy following them.

"Let's stop by Dr. Tofu's to make sure that Mousse's head won't hurt him too much." Akane said as she began to happily lead the small group to the good doctor's office.

"Maybe I'll meet you two at the ice cream parlor." Kasumi shyly began to demure.

"Oh, no, Onee-chan." Akane began to insist as she pleaded with her eyes. "It's been so long since we've done something together, and we just got Mousse to join us. You don't want to separate from us, do you, Kasumi?"

"No, I suppose not." Kasumi agreed as she silently cursed her sister's eyes.

She knew exactly where her sister had gotten those eyes too. They were eyes that could melt the hardest of hearts. They were the eyes that had caught Tendo Soun's heart and still held onto them. It was no wonder why Akane never had a shortage of friends and why Ranma was always willing to jump into danger for her sister. After all these years, her own sister couldn't say no to them half the time. Akane didn't even know she was doing it most times either. Perhaps she ought to get Akane to use those eyes on Nabiki to melt the Ice Queen's heart and bring back the sister they had once known. Kasumi was brought out of her musings though as Akane and Mousse pulled the older sister into the conversation.

The three chatted cheerfully as Kasumi got to know her little sister's newest friend and she could understand why the two martial artists got along so well. They were so different and had so much to share about their experiences that they never ran out of new conversations but they had enough common interests and shared points of views that they didn't stray too far away from being able to understand each other. Kasumi was glad that Akane had found such a good friend. It was also a relief that this new friend wasn't in love with her sister or trying to kill her on a constant basis, nor was he was trying to take her fiancé away from Akane, at least not anymore than anyone else wanted to. Mousse, in turn, was happy to find that her older sister was just as friendly and personable as the youngest sister was. He was very happy at finding a few friend to chat with. It was good company for the both of them and it wasn't long before the trio stood in front of Dr. Tofu's clinic.

"Kasumi, you wait out here and I'll take Mousse inside." Akane said to her sister. "It won't be long at all and we'll be back out in no time."

"It's probably for the best." Kasumi said and she waited by the wall as the other two went into the building.

The two quickly hurried inside and stepped into the waiting room. As it was almost closing time there was no else in the room and the good chiropractor, who was just about to clean up the place, came out and greeted one of his favorite patients.

"Hello, Akane. Hello, Mousse. Back already? What seems to be the problem?" Dr. Tofu kindly greeted them.

"Mousse here, was hit in the forehead." Akane explained. "There's a bit of a red mark and we wondered if you could do something about it."

"There's really not much there at all but Akane insisted that she bring me here to make sure." The white-robed boy said as the good doctor took a look at his head.

"We're about to go out for ice cream and I just wanted to make sure you didn't have a concussion so that you'd be sure to have a good time." Akane let her friend know.

"Well, no worries there. It's just a bump. Do you have a little bit of that cream left that I gave you the other day?" The good doctor asked and once the young man nodded, continued to speak. "Just use a dab of that and any mark will be gone by the next morning."

Mousse deftly reached into his right sleeve and pulled out a small jar. Opening it, he dipped in his finger for a small bit of the cream inside and put a little bit of it right where the puck had hit him and before the jar was even put back to its place in his jacket, any lingering sensitivity was gone.

"Thank you very much, Dr. Tofu." The male Amazon said politely.

"Yes, thank you very much, Dr. Tofu." Akane spoke. "You're always so helpful to our family and friends. I wish there was something we could do for you. It isn't much but would you like to join us for some ice cream? I'll even treat you."

"That's all right, Akane." The doctor kindly declined. "You don't have to treat me to ice cream. I'm always happy to have you and everyone else come into my clinic."

"I insist that you come with us, Dr. Tofu." Akane refusing to let the man say no.

Mousse was onto his friend's plan and decided to back her up. "You know she will not take no as answer, Dr. Tofu. It's better that you just accept and come with us."

"All right then, Mousse." The chiropractor gave in. "Just this once, Akane. Just let me lock up and we'll head out in another minute."

"We'll wait outside for you. Kasumi is waiting for us." Akane let the man know and she and Mousse went out the door to stand beside her sister.

"That was quick." Kasumi commented. "Shall we go then?"

"Not yet, Onee-chan." Akane halted her. "Dr. Tofu is coming with us."

"Oh, how did you convince him to come?" The eldest sister curiously asked.

"I didn't tell him you were with us until he already agreed." Akane said smiling.

"I hope he can take it." Mousse said out loud and his blue-haired friend nearly snorted as she tried to keep from laughing.

"I hope so too." Kasumi replied solemnly but the other two could see the amusement in her eyes.

Before another word could be said, the good doctor came strolling out the door with his skeleton Betty as they tangoed out of the building. Akane was determined to make this work for her sister though and she walked right over and grabbed the skeleton out of the chiropractor's hands.

"Dr. Tofu, focus!" She nearly hissed at him. "Mousse, help me out!"

Mousse kindly put his hand on the man's shoulder and began to lead him toward the ice cream shop, making sure that he didn't get too far away and begin to dance wildy or something. Meanwhile, the long haired boy and the short-haired girl kept a running dialogue going. Akane was hoping that by getting Dr. Tofu to spend some time being near Kasumi, he might get used to her company and after a while calm down so that they could actually form a decent relationship. She really wanted her sister and the good doctor to be happy and together, so to help Dr. Tofu from losing his cool, the younger ones kept him talking about the work he's done around the neighborhood. Kasumi would occasionally throw a word into the conversation but whenever she did, Dr. Tofu would nearly become unhinged. Mousse would then have to grab him before he went skipping through the tulips and Akane would block his view of her sister and bring him back to earth by asking him something else about his job. It worked to a surprising degree. Kasumi and Akane did indeed share their large bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge, whipped topping and 2 cherries on top. All and all, even when the good chiropractor nearly did a swan dive out of the ice cream parlor window when Kasumi snuck a smile past Mousse right to the man, the four of them had a very good time, and it just as they stepped out of the ice cream shop that they ran into the middle Tendo sister.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Nabiki asked slyly. "Akane with Mousse and Dr. Tofu with Kasumi?"

And hearing the words 'Dr. Tofu with Kasumi' set the neighborhood doctor man off once again and just as his glasses lit up and he began a merry Irish jig, he saw Kasumi give him another smile and he was river dancing down the street.

"Dr. Tofu! Dr. Tofu!" Akane called after him sounding more than a bit exasperated at his antics but with no less than a smile on her face.

"Bye-bye, Dr. Tofu!" Kasumi tittered as she waved at her hopeful beau.

At those words, the eldest and the youngest of the sisters burst out laughing as the friendly doctor doubled his dancing pace. Mousse couldn't help but chuckle along with them. Nabiki, feeling a bit surprised at her sisters' merriment, wasn't able to resist and began a slight snicker along with them too. Kasumi was extremely happy to see Nabiki actually laugh just a little bit. It had been a long time since anyone had seen the heart of Nerima's Ice Queen melt for just a few seconds, even her own sisters.

It was Kasumi, of course, who gained her semblance of poise and spoke calmly. "How was your prep course, Nabiki?"

"It was tough but nothing I couldn't handle." The girl with the page haircut let her know. "I'll ace the entrance exams into Tokyo University when it's over."

"That's great, Nabiki!" Akane beamed at her sister and gave her a happy hug.

Surprised at the unexpected display of affection, the middle sister was caught off guard but was glad to be caught up in the good mood of the group and so she hugged her younger sister back. As she pulled back to take a look at her family, she noticed how they seemed very comfortable in Mousse's company and it really did them all good for Akane to have found this new friendship with him. It was nice to see Akane not scowling or in a bad mood because of something Ranma had said to her. It was nice that Kasumi let her serene mask slip away for a while. It was all a bit strange that it was happening around the male Amazon but it wasn't unwelcome. Maybe she ought to give him a break in her scheme of things. It would be nice to let her own guard down for a while, so she began to talk. Nabiki began telling them about her plans for uni and business. The long-haired sister could only keep smiling as the now 4 person group began making their way to the Tendo house, chatting, joking and very much getting along.

Unbeknownst to the small gathering of friends, a different member of the house of the Tendo household had been watching them. Unlike the last time, he'd had no intention of following them but the local chiropractor doing a clog dance down the street tended to catch attention and lead to only one conclusion. Ranma had started to run along the fence to catch up to Kasumi to ask when would be the perfect time to head home for dinner. He'd been a few feet back when he saw his inazuke give the betting queen a hug and had been very shocked that it had been reciprocated. Seeing all three sisters all so joyful together was also something that he wasn't sure he'd ever seen. It was the kind of scene that Ranma always imagined happening whenever he'd be forcefully married to Akane, though not even to himself did the boy in Chinese clothes admit to himself that it wouldn't really be forcefully for him to marry Akane. At thise time though, Nabiki only used him like a betting horse but at least she couldn't have a better bet, Kasumi was usually always so proper and calm and Akane was just usually angry at him.

HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID MOUSSE KEEP DOING THIS WHILE HE KEPT BEING PUSHED TO THE SIDE LATELY?!?! Ranma quite had enough of this. It was time to put all he knew into action. When you can't think it through, fight it through. With that thought firmly in mind and no plan made ahead, Ranma began roof-hopping to make sure he made it home before they did.

The 3 sisters entered into the doorway of their home with the youngest's friend right behind them. Kasumi immediately headed into her room so that she could drop off her packages from their earlier shopping, put on her apron and start cooking right away. Nabiki went upstairs so that she could finish a few business calls before dinner. Akane asked Mousse to meet her in the dojo because she needed to hurry up and change so they could spar for a while. Mousse, already getting accustomed to the customs of the Tendo home, did as he was suggested and headed into the dojo to find the other martial artist was already there in the middle of a very advanced kata. Mousse, being absolutely aware of the fact that it would be rude to interrupt in the middle of training like that due to the fact that every Amazon female would chuck something at the offending male who would dare come in the middle of a training session, decided it was best to simply stand in the corner and allow him to finish. Besides, maybe he could catch him really unaware at the end and be able to say that Mousse finally beat Ranma.

It was a nice thought but the moment the white-robed Chinese boy had entered the dojo, Ranma had been aware of his presence. The pig-tailed martial artist had some serious aggression to take out and since Ryouga had disappeared one of his super long walks for the week until his orbit back to Nerima, so who better to pound on than the problem maker himself?

"Here to train with Akane again, Mousse?" Ranma casually asked as he finished up his kata and turned to look at his opposition.

"Yes, she's getting ready and will be down in just a few minutes." Mousse said civilly, though in his mind the white-robed boy was contemplating how rude it would be to the Tendos if he sent a bowling ball right at Saotome's head.

"Well, you're gonna need the trainin,' if you ever wanna beat me." Ranma taunted. "Don't know why you're training with Akane though. You'll never get anywhere in your training with her around."

"You shouldn't put her down so much, Saotome." Mousse simply responded. "She's more capable than you're aware of. She just needs a chance to prove herself."

"Shut up! It ain't none of your business what me and Akane say to each other!" Ranma snapped at him. "It ain't like you'll ever prove to Shampoo that you're strong enough for her!"

The pig-tailed boy knew that it had been a bit harsh of him to say that last part but he couldn't help it. He was irritated and Mousse telling him about how to treat Akane just pushed his buttons so Ranma had to push things back at Duck Boy. Of course, his comment set Mousse's temper off then.

"That's it, Saotome! We fight!" Mouse yelled out in anger and sent a cannon ball out of his sleeve and right to Ranma's head. Luckily, it was one of his trick cannon balls that was meant to go off as a distraction to his opponent and it exploded with a snap of confetti and streamers.

Ranma, of course, ducked at the last minute and was already ready lunging forward with a kick to the stomach and a followup left hook to the face ready. Mousse just barely moved back from the kick but wasn't far away enough to dodge the punch. If the male Amazon knew anything, it was how to take a punch though and he sent a strong jab toward the chest of the pig-tailed martial artist. They stepped back after the exchange of blows and measured each other up. Both young men were angry and wanting to fight and both wanted to beat the tar out of each other.

Ranma was the first to make a move and he shot out a straight kick toward Mousse's gut once again. Mousse, using his hands, pushed down Ranma's kick, and using the leverage, jumped up with his own sweeping kick sent at the Japanese boy's head. Ranma followed the inertia of Mousse's block down and was just able to dodge the kick. Mousse, finishing the maneuver, tucked into a forward flip and landed right behind the pig-tailed boy. He was already sending another kick out at Ranma. The Japanese boy in Chinese clothing wasn't able to get out of the way of that kick and was sent staggering forward.

The two opponents stopped to measure each other up once more. They'd both gotten a blow to each other, making it a stalemate so far. Both martial artist were holding back though. As much as they wanted to go after each other, it would be extremely bad if the dojo got damaged. Ranma had just finished paying Nabiki back for the large hole in the room from a few weeks ago during an encounter with Ryouga. Mousse was aware of the fact that if Cologne decided that it'd be too much trouble, she could say he wasn't allowed to go on the trip with Akane and as an Amazon Elder, Mousse would be forced to listen to her. Damaging the Tendo dojo would be a nice excuse for her to say that he couldn't go.

Mousse decided to make the first move this time and started a series punches at the other boy. Ranma dodged each one and at the last punch, spun around and sent a round kick into Mousse's back. Mousse fell forward to the ground, quickly picked himself up and was ready to face the pig-tailed martial artist again but they were suddenly interrupted.

"Ranma! Mousse! What are you guys doing?!" Akane called out in surprise as she stepped into the dojo.

"We were just sparring, Akane." Mousse replied tranquilly.

"Yeah." Ranma calmly agreed with him.

Akane thought they looked far from the peace their tones conveyed. Both Mousse and Ranma were tense and their muscles looked ready to attack anything that came near them or, more than likely, each other. They looked ready to kill each other and just make sure things were okay, the blue-haired girl looked over her father's dojo to make sure there was no major damage. Seeing that there was none and glad that she didn't have to explain anything to her sister, she saw that the two young men were both boring holes into each other as she looked over everything. She decided to let things slide since there was no appearance of anything else.

"OK, then." The Japanese girl replied, not sure what to say next. "Are you finished then?"

"Yes, we were just about to declare things as a tie." Mousse said with only a slight smirk toward the other male.

Ranma, not liking that idea but couldn't disagree with it since it might tip off Akane, was forced to nod in accord. He finally glanced at his fiancee and was very surprised at what he saw. She was wearing that outfit she'd bought the day just a few days ago. The yellow t-shirt and blue yoga pants fit Akane perfectly. They were at a very comfortable fitting so that it showed off her petite body without it being skin tight and looking indecent. Ranma just knew that if his inazuke turned around he'd have a great view of her perfect bum. Suddenly realizing that he was having slightly perverted thoughts about his tomboy fiancee, Ranma snapped his attention to the other boy in the dojo.

Mousse quickly looked over at his friend and admitted that she looked quite attractive. He was once again reminded why men were always trying to date and/or straight out wed her. He could only wonder why Ranma was so against it. Mousse himself was firmly in love with the lovely, amazing, warrior Amazon princess Shampoo and speaking of her, she'd just come barreling past Akane and into the dojo.

"Shampoo here to see her Airen!" She declared as she flounced her hair in Akane's general direction, strutted right up to the pig-tailed martial artist and tried to wrap herself around his body.

Ranma wasn't having any of it though and showed that he held no reaction to her. Mousse shot several evil glares toward the pig-tailed boy. Akane shot several dirty looks to the purple-haired girl. All 4 teenagers stood there glowering at each other for several minutes before one of them finally realized how stupid they were all being.

"Honestly!" Akane declared exasperated. "I'd really like to get some sparring in tonight, so if Ranma and Shampoo will move from the center of the dojo so that there's room to do so, it would be greatly appreciated."

"I think I'd like to stay." Ranma said loudly.

"Why would you do that, Ranma?" Akane asked as she narrowed her eyes, wondering what his motives were.

"I just wanna watch." He shrugged hoping to sound nonchalant.

"I guess I can't stop you." Akane muttered to him as she began to stretch.

As she bent down to touch her toes and stretch her legs out, Ranma couldn't help but admire the view. Shampoo thought she'd finally gotten a reaction of Ranma and began to rub her body on him even more. The pig-tailed boy was less than appreciative of the Chinese girl's efforts though and shook her off of him. Mousse couldn't help but amusingly watch their antics while Akane was clueless and continued her stretching. He decided to see if he could make Shampoo react and began to button off his white robe. Shampoo had taken a seat right next to Ranma and couldn't help but let her eyes stray to Mousse's topless form. Even she had to admit that Duck Boy looked good without a shirt on.

"It's a little warm tonight." The usually blind boy commented.

"Yeah, it was pretty hot earlier." Akane agreed absentmindedly, though she was actually forced to hide a small smirk when she saw Shampoo's face as she watched Mousse. Of course, she had to agree with Shampoo but there was no need to be so obvious about it. She put those sort of thoughts out of her mind though and got ready to fight. "Ready, Mousse?"

"Ready." Mousse acknowledged as he went to face her in a ready stance.

They watched each other to see who would make the first move. Of course, it was the blue-haired girl who lost her patience first and stepped forward with 3 quick punches in succession at the long-haired boy's head. Mousse dodged from left to right and all the punches missed. He sent his own set of punches toward the girl but she ducked them all. She stood back up as soon as his arms were pulled back and As she came back up, Akane brought her leg up in a kick. Mousse, had thought that she was going for a leg sweep and jumped up to get out of its way but instead Akane's leg was high enough to catch him right in his side and he was sent flying to the left.

Ranma wanted to cheer for his inazuke as he'd never seen her do that before but thought it was wise to keep his mouth shut. Shampoo was surprised that she was able to pull off the fait and nail Mousse so solidly.

"That was very well done, Akane." Mousse let her know as he picked himself up.

"Really?" Akane wanted to know. "You told me about that move a couple of days ago and I just wanted to see if I could really pull it off."

"You mean you never practiced that before?" Ranma blurted out in amazement. He was extremely astonished that Akane had been able to pull it off without any practice before.

"No." The blue-haired girl replied simply.

"Again?" Mousse asked.

"Again." Akane affirmed for him and took a ready pose.

This time Mousse took the offense first and sent out a high kick. He tried to bring it back down but Akane had grabbed his foot and held it above her head. She pushed it away and tried to send her own kick toward his other legs in hopes of knocking him off his feet but Mousse, once again going with the momentum, tucked into a backwards flip and landed just a few feet in front of her. Akane was already following up with a punch which Mousse took into his shoulder as he twirled into her space and elbowed the petite girl in her side. Having not expected the small blow, Akane staggered just a few steps to the side but was already getting ready for the next exchange of hits.

"You're doing very well tonight, Akane." Mousse complimented her as he stood ready to face her again.

"Thanks, Mousse." The blue-haired girl said cheerfully. "Those clearing your mind techniques that you had also told me about really help. Daddy has only mentioned them to me before, and since being trained by Happosai, he just wasn't able to explain them well enough to me. They really help keep me stay focused and I haven't lost my temper yet."

"I am very glad that they are working so well for you." Mousse said happy for his friend.

Before they could start the next round of sparring, Kasumi stepped into the dojo. "Dinner is almost ready, Akane, in case you wanted to take a dip in the furo and get cleaned up before we eat. Do you know where Ran . . .Oh! He's in here too."

"Arigato, Onee-chan." Akane said. "I guess that's it for tonight, Mousse."

"Yes, I should get back to the restaurant." The long-haired boy replied as he grabbed his robe and put it back on.

"Oh! You're not wearing your glasses!" Akane suddenly exclaimed. "I didn't notice til now, Mousse. I'm sorry."

"That is fine." Mousse assured his friend. "The doctor that Dr. Tofu had recommended to me had given me some contacts to try out. I can see a bit better through them than my own glasses."

"You look good without your glasses." Akane let him know.

"Thank you, Akane." He told her gratefully. "Are you coming with me, Shampoo my darling?"

"Shampoo better get back to restaurant too." She replied and got up and walked out of the dojo without looking to see if Mousse was behind her or not.

"Tomorrow?" Akane asked him as they began to walk out together.

"Yes, I will see you tomorrow." Mousse let her know, nodded a goodbye, and jumped up to the rooftop to go after Shampoo back to the Nekohaten.

Ranma was right behind Akane as they crossed the yard to go back into the house. "Um, you were better than I expected ya to be, Akane."

Akane stopped in mid-stride in astonishment at Ranma's comment. There was a small slight to it that Ranma had meant that he'd expected Akane to be really bad but it was better than some of his other comments. She decided to take it as the best she could get out of him. "Thanks, Ranma." She said with a small smile on her face and continued to walk into the house.


	7. See You Later

Disclaimer: Not mine. Do we have to do this every single time?

_AN: I got 2 interesting reviews for my last chapter that left me quite stumped. Honestly, I won't bother to repeat what the reviews said, so if you're interested, go ahead and check them out but I will address their points. _

_In this story Nabiki has only made a few cameo appearances and she's barely said any more than 2 or 3 sentences to Ranma, so where is there a chance in my story that Nabiki/Ranma might be the possible pairing in this story?! I state in the AN in ch.2 which pairing it is. How much clearer can I state the fact that this is a Ranma/Akane story? Do I have to take 2 sticks with the names Ranma and Akane carved on each of them and beat the person in the head with them? _

_As for Ranma being the 'bad guy' in my story, again, where does that idea come from? If anything, I've been making Ranma the victim, right along with Akane. They are both going through different issues throughout the story as they deal with the chaos that is life in Nerima. They both have problems and emotional baggage to deal with. They've both made mistakes and they're both trying to figure out how to live their lives as everyone continues to butt into their business. For this story, I decided to make Akane the first catalyst of change for several different reasons. Akane is the only one out of the crew that has always gone to school, has other friends and has been able to have other interests. The others have spent their entire lives training martial arts and Ranma was even forced to give up his mother to be trained to be the best. Akane's the only one who can offer Ranma what he's always wanted in his life, which is a home and somewhere he can belong, without giving up who he is. She's the only one who's had a semi-normal life who has seen what a normal life and relationship can be. Is it really that hard to believe that she might be the first to realize that what's been going on isn't normal and decide to change a few things about herself, and in essence change the reactions of the people around her? She doesn't blame Ranma, though she knows that Ranma does do a lot of things that don't help, such as making fun of her and whatnot. She realizes that the problem actually lies in herself and the way she reacts to Ranma. The story has so far been centered on Akane's POV, mostly cause I didn't want to confuse things and change POV too many times. There's a lot more going on in each character's mind than I have revealed so far. However, almost each time a different character's feelings has significantly changed about something, I have stopped and shown glimpses into their new point of view. _

_Anyway, I know this chapter is a lot shorter than the last chapter but it's actually about the same length as the 1st chapter. When I had started this chapter, I realized that the first part I had planned was already 5 pages long and I knew for a fact that the 2nd part would end up much too long, so I decided to split things. It's become a bit of a filler chapter but some things had to be explained before progress was made in plot. Honestly, I had this chapter written for a few weeks but my beta got a bit busy and wasn't able to work on it so for once, I had things on time! _

_Please, readers, take my apologies and gratefulness for allowing a crazy author to vent a little and turning what was supposed to be a simple AN into nearly a page unto itself. I welcome questions, comments, critics and such but I please ask that they be relevant. On with the story now, and please R&R! _

About half of the Nerima Wrecking Crew and their families had woken up early and made their way to Furikan High School to see two of their numbers off on their summer trip. A couple of them were there for a few different reasons though. Akane was all packed and ready to go. She had already said a farewell to her friends, Sayuri and Yuka, yesterday. It was time to give final hugs and kisses to her family. Kasumi was giving Akane last minute reminders on how to take care of herself. Nabiki was telling her to make sure to call and write cause she wanted to her all about how America was really like. Even Soun had left the house to make sure his baby girl was going to be all right. Genma had tagged along to make sure that his son didn't screw up his relationship with the youngest Tendo and ruin their plans to unite the 2 schools. Ranma was standing slightly off to the side with a scowl on his face at the fact that his fiancé would be gone for 3 weeks with someone else.

That someone else was indeed standing beside the blue-haired girl. Mousse had his bag all packed and was waiting patiently as his friend said her goodbyes. He was very surprised when he was swept up into a hug by the eldest Tendo sister and was told to take care of himself and her sister. Shampoo was standing among them but within just an arm's reach of the pig-tailed boy. She kept telling herself that she was there to make sure Ranma didn't do something crazy like kiss the Kitchen Destroyer goodbye or something. Cologne was even there as she told Mousse not to do anything that would disgrace the Amazon tribe, but honestly, she wanted to see what sort of fun might happen at the moment. Ukyo had even shown up to show her support of Akane being gone for 3 weeks and to remind her Ran-chan that she was always there for him.

No one had seen Ryouga for a while now but Ranma fully expected to see him sometime later today or in the next day. Kuno hadn't shown up but that didn't mean he wouldn't be there soon. After all, his huntress was going out of the country for 3 weeks and wherever there is one Kuno, the other is sure to follow. Ranma had his weary eye out for the should-be-locked-up Black Rose.

"SAOTOME!!" A very recognizable cry carried through the air who also happened to be waving a very familiar bokken through the air. "How dare you allow this travesty to happen!!"

Sometimes Ranma really cursed his luck on these matters. Just thinking about these things seemed like an invitation for the gods out there to just pull them out of his head and throw them at him.

"What have I done now, Kuno?" Ranma asked in pure boredom.

"You evil rogue of sorcerer hast continued to bewitch the hair beauty, Tendo Akane, and have driven her away! How dare you force her to flee from our homeland and away from my own presence . . ." Kuno continued to rant on for a bit but everyone else had tuned him out.

Akane, quite upset at Kuno interrupting her time with her family, decided to try to cut him off. "Sempai Kuno, Ranma hasn't done anything. I was chosen to go on that ambassador trip to the United States."

Kumo properly calmed with the information, sheathed his bokken into his belt. "Oh, well, that is acceptable then. When will you be returning, Tigress Akane?"

"3 weeks." She answered him, quite surprised at how normal he suddenly seemed, though he still went with the Shakespearean speak. He hadn't been so composed since the first time she'd ever met the older student when he'd ask her to date with him and she'd said no.

"Then may you have a joyful journey and safe return to us soon." The upperclassman sincerely wished to her.

"Thank you, Sempai." Akane returned as she turned her attention to give the middle Tendo daughter a hug goodbye.

Kuno couldn't help but stay and watch the family affair. He wished he could be a part of it. His own family was so messed up. His mother had died long ago. His father was consumed in his Hawaiian principal tactics. His own sister was twisted and lost in her chemistry and gymnastics. He himself was deluded in his love for Shakespeare and Kendo. In his love for Akane, he hoped that he could one day join her circle of friends and family. She was a strong woman with strong martial arts ability so she was a great match for him. His love for the Pig-tailed Girl was the same feeling, though that one was less than honorable but heck, he was a teenage boy after all.

"You make sure that Kasumi does more than just housecleaning." Akane said smiling at her slightly older sister. "You'll need a break from all of your planning. Both of you need to take a break occasionally."

"You be sure to have fun on your trip and not worry so much about everything here." Nabiki tossed back at her as she embraced her little sister one last time. Though she tried to hide it, the girl with the page haircut couldn't hide the smile she had on her face from everyone.

Kuno saw that smile and he saw how it lit up her face. So Akane wasn't the only person who had such a radiant smile. Nabiki should smile more often, Kuno thought to himself.

"I will bid thee a farewell then, Tendo Akane." Kuno let her know and began to walk away. He had just one more thing to say though before he went back to his mansion. "Tendo Nabiki, I will see you later."

"Oh, my!" Kasumi couldn't help but let out that little exclamation. She had seen that look that Kuno had given her middle sister. It was a look usually reserved for the youngest Tendo daughter. She could only wonder how Nabiki would react once she found out about this new piece of information but for now, Kasumi would let things play themselves out. The next 3 weeks would feel so empty without the vivacious blue-haired girl so a little surprise and mystery would keep things interesting.

Nabiki had seen that look that Kuno had thrown at her though. She hated to admit it but she was terrified to think of just what it meant and made plans to deal with it later.

Just as one Kuno began to walk away, the other Kuno had just leaped her way in front of all of them. Before she could let out her usual laugh and demand of fealty, the male Kuno leaned over and whispered something into her ear. The girl wearing a black leotard stared at her brother with an incredulous look of surprise but suddenly nodded slowly as if in an unsure agreement. Then the most amazing thing happened. It was something that not even the great ring leader of the Furikan High School betting ring, Nabiki, could have predicted. They both turned around and walked away. The Black Rose couldn't resist blowing a kiss to her beloved though before the 2 very odd siblings disappeared around the corner. Every single person in the school yard from the teachers and the students who were chosen to go and the families saying goodbye, and even the custodial staff who were hired specifically to come and fix any damage done over the school year, were completely and utterly stunned at this turn of events.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Akane couldn't help asking aloud in the stunned silence that had settled over the crowd in the school yard.

"I haven't the slightest clue." Kasumi tranquilly answered though Akane could see a sparkle of mischief behind her eyes.

She sent a questioning look to her sister in hopes of an explanation but the long brown-haired sister of the Tendo family simply returned a look that told Akane she would have to find out later. The blue-haired girl, though very curious to matters, threw back the smallest of nods that she would wait but expected to hear the facts later on. Kasumi smiled to let her know that she would indeed be filled in later and Akane smiled back in more accord.

While everyone was still staring at the corner as if waiting for the Kuno children to pop back around the corner and yell 'boo,' Ranma had turned back to look at his fiancee as soon as she'd spoken, and was still staring at her face as she had that silent conversation with her oldest sister. He was utterly blown away at such an intense display of so many different emotion that flitted across her face in the span of all 2 seconds. The smile at the end clenched at his heart and he was forced to make a decision that he'd been going back and forth in his head for the past week and half.

Ranma had noticed that Akane was trying to be different. It had taken him a long while to see the effort she was putting out to change her temper, but he did finally see it. At first he hadn't been sure what to make of it. He had simply thought that maybe she was bored of him and was just turning her attention to Mousse and it had been so much easier to blame the male Chinese Amazon at first. But even a Saotome could delude himself for so long. If the blind Duck Boy could see, then the pig-tailed young man could also see that Akane was changing more than just her passing interest in a boy.

She was really making an effort to change herself into a better person. She was putting more effort into everything she did from school and personal relationships to martial arts and it was just mind blowing how much her want to make herself better affected everyone and everything around her. In the past week she had made the most profound affect on the happiness of her family. For the past year and half that Ranma had been living in the Tendo house he had never seen any of the Tendo sisters be so open with each and so happy to be around each other. Kasumi's absolute mask of sereneness let her show disapproval of her father and his father's drunken nights out, her amusement in some of the antics that happened in her home and other such things that Ranma had never seen from her before. Nabiki's own face of ice was occasionally melted whenever near her sister's new attitude and Ranma saw happiness around her family and show affection to the ones she cared about. Even Soun was slowly being brought over to their side of things and didn't burst into tears as often. The change in Mousse was the largest difference in things. The fact that he had switched from glasses to contacts had made a major change in his ability to fight. The prescription of the contacts wasn't perfect but they were a heck of a lot better for him to see through than his old glasses. His sparring with Akane helped home in on his flaws in technique as he shared them with the blue-haired girl and gave him time to get used to the change in his vision so that when he went after the pig-tailed martial artist, Ranma was forced to do more than just dodging. Since Ryouga's continued disappearance, Ranma was hard-pressed to pick who would win a fight between the Pig Boy and Duck Boy. The recent change in Kuno's demeanor was just the latest development that confounded matters even further in Ranma's head.

With everyone making a change, and as much as the aqua sex-changer hated change, Ranma was forced to go along with them or truly be left behind. Change had always been a bad thing for the young martial artist. Change had forced him to leave his mother behind. He changed every single time he was splashed with hot or cold water. Change always meant that someone's feelings got hurt and friends would leave or he was forced to leave. It was understandable that Ranma didn't like change usually, but he had to admit that lately change was a good thing and it was indeed time to start making a change in himself. He couldn't stay the same and keep teasing her if she no longer reacted. He only went after her like that cause it was a great way for Akane to notice him without their father's suspecting anything more was going on between them. He knew that sometimes it went too far though and always felt horrible when she cried. He always tried to make things up to her though, and then she'd actually smile at him cause she knew he was trying. She no longer took the bait anymore though, so Ranma couldn't keep playing the same game. The game had changed.

Ranma finally admitted to himself that he cared about Akane as more than just a friend. He wasn't anywhere near ready to admit that he might actually lo . . . .no, he couldn't say it, but ranma more than cared about his forced-upon fiancee in that way but heck, it was progress. No one said change had to be immediate. So admitting that fact to himself made him see that he had to do something about her leaving. He couldn't go with her though and he knew there was no way he could ask her to not go. He had heard her talking excitedly about the trip for the past 2 weeks now. The youngest Tendo daughter was totally ecstatic about her chance to see a new place and meet new people and the sometimes-girl boy couldn't deny her happiness like that. She was going to be leaving for 3 weeks though and Ranma had to do something.

It was Kasumi who had given him the idea for it. Ranma had been lounging in front of the television, not really watching whatever was being shown, as she came through the living and was cleaning. She had suddenly looked up and asked him whether he had seen a small white cloth sitting around the room. Ranma had distractedly replied that he hadn't seen it and the long-haired Tendo sister had continued to say that it was a small gift that Kasumi was embroidering to give to Akane as a small 'have a good trip' gift so that she wouldn't miss her family too much and that if he saw it, to let her know. Ranma had jumped into a standing position so abruptly that he had nearly rammed his head through the ceiling of the living room. Before he could even tell her what she had just done for him, the oldest Tendo sister had already left the room to start dinner.

The question had then turned into what sort of 'see you later' gift could Ranma give to Akane without everyone turning it into a major huge deal but still have enough meaning to her that she would really like it. The young martial artist had really racked his brain for the answer to such a riddle. There was no way he could ask anyone for advice on the matter. The only person he felt he could even approach on such a topic was the one who'd given him the idea but he was learning that to say anything out loud was a basic definite of someone else overhearing his conversation, especially a certain girl with a page haircut who liked to carry around tape recorders just for him. So Ranma had seriously spent some time on his own looking for the answer. When he told everyone that he was heading to the arcade, he'd actually been wandering the mall, in disguise cause there was no way that Saotome Ranma could be caught walking the mall for more than 1 day in a row, hoping to catch a glimpse of a nice token to hand to his inazuke.

It wasn't until 3 days ago that his eye had fallen on the perfect item. It was a small sterling silver link bracelet with a small rose shaped pink quartz in the center plate. It was simple but elegant with a hint of feminity to it with the pink quartz rose. It screamed Akane. Besides, he'd sort of remembered that she'd point it out to him weeks ago when they'd been in the mall together. The problem was that he had been short just 500 yen on his own. He hated to do it but Ranma had been forced to borrow money. The amazing part was that it hadn't been as painful as he had thought it would be. At first she had been her usual calculating self when he'd asked to borrow money from her but then he had told Nabiki exactly what he was getting her younger sister. As she had listened to him, her face had become softer though at first Ranma hadn't noticed at all. It wasn't until she told she'd lend him the money for the gift and that she wasn't even going to demand interest, as long as he didn't screw up when he actually gave it to her sister. If he ended up screwing her trip before she even left to go on, the middle Tendo child had warned him that she'd slap on triple interest just to spite him. She then handed him the money and had pushed him out of the door before he could say a word.

For the first time ever, the Kami was on Saotome Ranma's side. He had run to the mall fast as he dared without drawing the usual following. He was lucky that it was the start of summer so that both the Nekohaten and Uc-chan's kept Ukyo, Mousse and Shampoo from chasing after him for the time being as they restaurants adjusted to the more numerous summer customers. With everyone else being out of school, he was able to blend into the crowd more and not be so suspicious as he walked through the mall. The best part of it was that Ranma was able to get the back of the plate that held the pink rose engraved with 2 simple words-'from Ranma.' It was simple but it worked and now all he had to do was give it to her. Ranma had broken into a nervous sweat at such a thought.

As Akane had given her family their hugs goodbye, Ranma was the last person she still had yet to say 'see you later' to. Her father had been the first person she'd hugged goodbye. It was common knowledge among the sisters that Daddy hated goodbyes no matter for how short a time they were for. He was now standing just behind them, bawling his eyes out at the fact that his 'baby girl was going so far off all by her lonesome.' Akane loved her father though and his crazy antics. She had even given Ranma's father a handshake in the hopes that he would behave himself. Stunned at the show of friendship, the usually-panda man had simply kept his mouth shut and told her to have a good time and that a small souvenir would be nice. The pig-tailed martial artist was standing there and just looking ready to bolt, as Akane waited for Ranma to realize that it was time for her to separate from them. She didn't blame him for looking so scared though since everyone was still a bit spooked over the strange way the Kuno siblings acted. She couldn't stand there forever staring at a nervous Ranma, even if he did look as handsome as he always did. Akane shook her head in dismay. She reminded herself that she had to get over such thoughts and concentrate on other things for the time being. Standing there and staring and waiting for him to say something was definitely a bad thing.

"Ranma, well, I guess I'll be seeing you in 3 weeks." Akane found herself saying. Her voice sounded so small to her own ears. She wasn't sure what to say though, so she was hesitant.

"Uh, yeah, I'll see ya later, Akane." Ranma responded as he forced his brain to pay attention the moment.

She was slightly disappointed that those were the only words that he was going to say to her but Akane simply told herself that this was Ranma after all. At least he hadn't insulted her somehow. Deciding that she might as well go for it, she held out her hand to him as she had done to his father and waited for him to shake it. As much as it would have been nice, she knew there was no way he would accept a hug from her.

The young pig-tailed martial stared at the girl he had fallen for despite his hardest efforts not to do so. His hand continued to fiddle with the small wrapped box in his pocket. They had hardly been separated from each other for too long since the day they had met each other and now she was going to be gone from him for 3 weeks. For 3 weeks he wouldn't see her beautiful, expressive brown eyes or her radiant smile or hear her sweet voice chatting away with her sisters in the next room. Ranma stared at her outreaching hand that looked so petite and gentle but was well practiced in breaking straw dummies, wooden planks and bricks into bits. He wanted nothing more than to just reach out for that hand and pull the tiny, lovely young lady into a hug and possibly do a small something to her lips, but that just wasn't possible. It would be the stupidest thing he could do in front of everyone. Shampoo and Ukyo would start chasing him to the ends of the earth and Ranma really didn't want to spend the start of his summer break fleeing for his life. Soun and Genma would have a wedding planned for the moment that Akane stepped back onto Japanese soil.

The Kami had apparently deemed to keep blessing the young Japanese boy as he was struck with inspiration on how to give his inazuke the gift. It wasn't a large bracelet by any means so it had been placed inside of a small box that fit in the palm of his hand. He could just simply keep the box hidden in his hand and place it unseen into her outstretched hand.

"Have a fun trip, Akane." Ranma told her. As soon as he touched her hand, he closed his hand around hers, pressing the small token into the palm of her hand and proceeded to shake it. He gave her a pointed look that he hoped sent across the message to not say a word about said object as he kept on talking. "Don't forget about everyone back here and be sure to tell Kasumi where you'll be going and staying."

Akane's eyes couldn't be more open in absolutely shock when she felt the small package slipped into her palm. As Ranma continued to shake her hand and talk, she was given the chance to recover and receive the message. She sent him a smile to let him know that she got it.

"Thank you, Ranma." She said in return, hoping that he got the double meaning in her gratefulness. "Take care of the family for me and try to stay out of trouble."

"Hey, trouble finds me and no problem." He responded easily enough. His nervousness had disappeared when she'd understood what was going on.

At that, the 2 fiancees let go of each other's hand on some unspoken agreement. Akane turned to Ukyo and Shampoo both and said a quick 'see you later.' She knew they were really there to make sure that she was gone and then spend as much time with Ranma to try to make him forget about her but they had shown up and not started any trouble. If Akane really wanted to show to herself that her temper was getting better, she had to say a polite goodbye to them. Besides, it would make Kasumi proud. Once the customary farewells were recited to everyone, the blue-haired girl then gave one last wave to everyone and turned around to walk away to get on the bus that would take them to the airport from where they would get on the place and be off to America for 3 weeks. Ranma and the rest of the Tendo family stood there and watched as the glue of their group walk off to adventure and new experiences.

Mousse walked right beside the small Japanese girl and gotten onto the bus right after she had stepped onto the bus. His farewells hadn't been nearly as long. Cologne had only given the obligatory 'don't shame the Amazons' speech and that had really been it. It would be torture not seeing Shampoo's alluring beauty for the next 3 weeks but it would be great not being near the Amazon Elder so it was a bit of a trade off. The old dried up monkey remains had been really rough with him lately. Shampoo had given him a bit of a surprise though when she'd actually reached for his hand and held it for a second when she'd told him not to do anything stupid. It wasn't quite a hug though it was almost as good as in their culture. It was definitely far better than a bonk on the head and Mousse had sincerely relished the feeling of his beloved hand's in his own for that too short of a second.

Mousse wasn't the only one surprised about a little hand grasping at least. Being a master of hidden weapons, the Chinese Amazon male had seen something in Ranma's hand when he reached for her hand and the wide eyed look of his blue-haired friend had confirmed the fact that something had been passed between them. Perhaps he could discuss these developing matters with his friend, Akane. If anything, the trip would offer great sites and such, and he could enjoy that with his ally in the petite Japanese girl.

Shampoo had also watched that little conversation between her Airen and Violent Girl. She didn't know what had happened but it wasn't difficult to see that something had happened when Akane's eyes opened in such a wide-eyed expression. All she did know was that it wasn't good but for the moment, it didn't matter. The Kitchen Destroyer would be gone for the next several weeks and she would have Ranma all to herself. Well, there was still Spatula Girl, but she wasn't much competition. It was the short, blue-haired girl that, for whatever reason, he was especially protective over, but it was partly for his honor and loyalty that she was so attracted to the Japanese boy.

A small part, while every single part of her that demanded honor and respect the Amazon way hated admitting to it but the purple-haired martial artist was worried over the idea of Mousse being gone. No, not Mousse, he was Duck boy, Shampoo corrected herself mentally. They'd grown up together. Even as children, as they had trained to be warriors, he'd always followed her around, tripping over himself to please her and such. Even when she'd been chasing the girl-type Ranma, he'd been there just out of sight, and now, he was leaving for 3 weeks to spend time with the Obstacle. Obstacles for killing, the young Chinese Amazon automatically repeated to herself. Shampoo knew she was deluding herself on that one though.

She guessed that it was cause they'd never been really separated before that had made her grab his hand. In their culture it was just as good as giving him a kiss on the cheek. Giving a male Amazon an actual kiss on the cheek would have been a wedding proposal and there was no way that was happening and she wasn't about to give the Duck-beak face a kiss on the lips, no matter how chaste she meant it to be. He'd have blown it all out of proportion and they would have been forced to re-teach the methods of courtship, marriage and friendship to him and no young Amazon boy liked for those lessons to be repeated.

The purple-haired girl was so lost in thought that she hadn't even noticed Mousse following right behind the Angry Girl as she got on the bus. Shampoo then knew that she would indeed miss the stupid Duck Boy, but there was still Ranma and he was definitely more important. He also happened to have Ukyo still wrapped around his arm and he would pay for that. Shampoo looked around, saw that someone had left a water bottle on the ground and got an evil grin on her face. She grabbed the bottle and squirted herself with the cold water and jumped straight at the Japanese martial artist.

Akane had just taken her seat when she looked out the window to give everyone one last wave when she saw Ranma frantically running around the school yard. She stood up, ready to bolt out the bus to help him out of his fear of cats when Cologne deftly reached out and grabbed cat-Shampoo. Ranma ran behind a tree and stood there just trying to calm himself down. The petite blue-haired girl was still standing there frozen as she watched to make sure he hadn't entered Cat Fu.

Mousse touched her elbow and reassured her. "He will be all right. Cologne will prevent Shampoo from causing too much trouble."

She mutely nodded and slowly sat back in her seat. Akane then looked back out to Ranma to make sure with her own eyes that he would be all right. Ranma saw the concern on his inazuke's face and sent a small wave in her direction, to let her know that he would be fine. Akane then waved back at him to let him know that she had gotten the message. The bus driver had just started the bus when the youngest Tendo daughter looked back at her family for one more look at them. It was only 3 weeks but it could still seem like a very long time.

The family was still watching as the bus drove down the road to take the students and their escorts to the airport. Just as it drove out of the school yard, the groups started to break apart and head into different directions to get to their homes. The 2 Amazons had already left. Even the rest of the Tendos and Genma had started their walk home. Ranma was standing on the wall that surrounded the school and refused to leave til he could no longer see the bus from there, which would be for at least another 2 minutes. He ignored the fact that Ukyo was standing just below him on the ground. She was looking up at him and trying to convince him to come to her restaurant for a snack.

Akane tried not to look back but she couldn't help it. She saw Ranma standing there on the school wall. He looked as good as he always did in his black pants and red Chinese shirt and his pig-tail swaying slightly in the breeze. It would do her good to get away from everything. She knew it but she also knew that 3 weeks would be a very long time.


	8. Missing You

Disclaimer: Still isn't mine, but if that ever changes, I'll let you know.

_AN: I know, I suck. It's been forever since I updated. In the past several months, I had to move to another state and have a baby. Time is no longer a luxury for me. I've only just gotten my energy and inspiration back. I only hope that having dropped the story for so long that I was able to pick up the pace and tone of the story once again. Consider this a holiday gift. _

_I know I have no right to ask about this but there's a bit of a quandary, and thought I'd put it up to you handful of readers who actually read my story and like it enough to leave a review. I started this story as nothing more than entertainment for myself. I never thought it'd end up being close to 50,000 words. You have no idea how much it thrills me that anyone reads this at all. My original plan for this story is almost complete. In fact, after this chapter, I have only 1 more chapters planned. This was meant to be nothing more than a fun little story that shows the Ranma cast with a lil more depth in character without actually making them into different people. It wasn't meant to be a resolution to the manga or tv series. I have random thoughts on how I would like to complete the storyline and all that but I never had any intention of writing anymore Ranma fanfic once this story was done. However, I find myself attached to the new light that I've showed Ranma and everyone else in, and I want to give my own version of how the series should have ended. My question is this–is there anyone out there interested in reading that? It would end up being a sort of sequel to this story and also pick up where the last manga left things. It would be way longer than this story, with more adventure and a lil fantasy in it, which also means it would also take longer for me to work on. I can't promise regular updates, especially with a new baby, but I do promise that I will finish any story that I start to post. Please, let me know of any interest. If there's no one who wants to read such a story, it's no big deal. I might still write it, I might not. In the mean time, read, enjoy and please review! _

"Coming up on the right side is the Washington Monument. We'll be getting off the bus in a few minutes to take a closer look at it and. . ." The tour guide continued to speak but the petite blue-haired girl could no longer pay attention as her gaze fell onto the pretty bracelet that graced her wrist.

It was a small sterling silver link bracelet with a small rose shaped pink quartz in the center plate. It was the present that Ranma had given to her on the day she had left to be on this trip. It was quite a surprise. Akane remembered seeing the exact bracelet in one of the smaller specialty jewelry shops and had pointed it out to him during one of their outings there. She hadn't really thought Ranma had been paying attention to anything that she had been looking at though and was shocked that he had remembered it so that he could actually buy it for her. Maybe there was hope for him yet but the petite Japanese girl was afraid to get her hopes up about her forced upon fiancé.

"Akane." Mousse spoke, interrupting her speculations. "Are you all right? Everyone is getting off the bus now."

The blue-haired girl looked up and around the bus and realized that she and her Chinese friend were actually the last people on the bus, besides the bus driver. She was surprised that she'd been so lost in her thoughts for so long that she had missed what the tour guide had been saying.

"I'm all right, Mousse." Akane assured him. "I was just thinking. We better go catch up with everyone else."

"I also miss home." Mousse kindly let her know.

"Thanks, Mousse." Akane said gratefully as she got off the bus. "Let's go."

Akane was very grateful that Mousse was with her on this trip so far away from home. The two friends got along famously, so much so that a few who weren't sure about the Ranma situations that happened around school had thought that she and Mousse were engaged to each other. Akane and Mousse maintained the fact that they were simply good friends, even enough to say that they were best friends, but were not interested in each other like that. After the first few days, seeing how the 2 interacting comfortably with each other, but never had that famous sexual tension that existed between Ranma and Akane, they saw how Mousse and Akane really were just friends. The male Amazon and the female Japanese martial artist talked with each other about the sights and activities of the trip and of many other things, and the others found out that the 2 were also a lot of fun to be around as they joked and teased each other with no malicious intent, especially when they watched the 2 young martial artists as they sparred in the large and usually empty hotel lobby in the evenings. In fact, so many different people were so interested in watching that, both Mousse and Akane soon started showing them a few things about martial arts. The trip was exactly what the 2 members of the Nerima Wrecking Crew needed.

Akane had been gone for 1 week now. That was 7 days. There was still another 2 weeks before she was back in Nerima, and broken down that was at least 13 more days, if today wasn't added. Not that Saotome Ranma was counting, of course, but well, 2 weeks was a long time. For the time being, the pig-tailed martial artist was laying on his usual spot on the roof right above Akane's room and staring out over the neighborhood as his mind went over the facts.

They had never been separated for so long before since he'd made his home here in Nerima. Actually, it almost didn't feel like home to the young martial artist without Akane around. She had been the first person to welcome him into the household, though that had all gone straight down the drain once she'd found out that Ranma wasn't actually a girl. Even though, the 2 had argued from the get go, she had always done her best to help him like when Kuno had found out that their parents had engaged them together and he and Kuno had fell into the pool. It had been Akane who had brought him hot water so that he could change back into a boy and be able to fight him. It wasn't until she was gone, did Ranma realize how much just having his blue-haired fiancee around meant to him and just how bored that left him without having her around. Usually when Ranma was in lack of something to do, he'd go see what his forced upon fiancee was doing, but it wasn't recently did the pig-tailed boy realize how often he really did check on the girl just to see her for a few minutes during the day.

His mind wanderings were interrupted when his stomach let out a loud growl. All that thinking was making him hungry and the Japanese martial artist decided it was a good time to visit his friend Uc-chan. As he made his way to his brown-haired fiancee's restaurant, Ranma suddenly heard his name being yelled out.

"RAAAAAANNMMMAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I'll get you for this!!" Ryouga yelled out in sheer frustration.

The Japanese boy with short hair had just come back from Akari's pig farm. He hadn't meant to leave but he had wanted to go to the bathroom and he had somehow ended up in France. At least, he thought it was France. Ryouga remembered seeing the Eiffel Tower, so he was pretty sure that it was France.

"I ain't done anything, bacon breath. What'cha yelling for?" Ranma's voice seemed to call from nowhere.

The yellow bandanna boy twisted his body around so as to see just where Ranma's voice was coming from and he realized that Ranma was just beside him standing on the stone fence. "Ranma! What are you doing in Osaka?"

"You're back in Nerima, pig boy." The pig-tailed martial artist drawled at him.

"Don't call me that!" Ryouga yelled and jumped onto the fence in a ready position to smash his opponent's face in.

"All right, Ryouga. I could use a good fight. Let's go!" The young man in the red Chinese shirt and pants said enthusiastically as he automatically switched into a relaxed fighting stance.

"I don't have time to fight, Ranma." Ryouga suddenly said as he remembered the cute little pig statue he had found in a store just outside of Paris, that he still held in his hand. "Where's Akane? I have a souvenir for her."

The sometimes-man-turned-into-little-black-pig stared at the souvenir in hand. He'd also picked up a similar item for Akari. Akari was so nice to him and so pretty. She always welcomed him onto her farm. She knew about his curse and she still accepted that about him. Akane was just as nice and maybe even a little prettier than Akari, but she didn't know about his alter ego. Ryouga thought if he could just get the courage up to ask her on a date, she'd really like him and wouldn't be too bothered about his species-water-changing. She accepted Ranma's curse pretty well and Ranma was a jerk. Akane was always reminding him that he was so much nicer than Ranma. That had to mean something. Ryouga felt so confused sometimes. He knew it was wrong to feel for both girls, but he couldn't help himself. Both of them accepted him for who he was, even with his faults. He didn't want to risk losing either of them, but these were thoughts that were meant to be dealt with on a later day.

Ranma dropped his pose and realized that Ryouga had no idea what had happened for nearly the past month. "Akane's in Washington DC, in America, Ryouga. She's been gone for the past week already."

"What is she doing in America?!" The yellow bandanna boy questioned in a very alarmed tone and sent a very accusing glare at the person standing in front of him. "And why aren't you with her? What if something happens with her?! How could you let this happen?! It's all your fault, Ranma!!" As he spoke, his voice got louder and with each new volume reached, a punch was thrown.

"I told ya, pig boy! I ain't done nothin'!" Ranma yelled back as he dodged each punch. "She's on a school trip and Mousse went with her."

"WHAT?!?! Why is Mousse with her?" Ryouga continued to yell as he stared at Ranma. This time, the Japanese boy with the fangs was in too much shock to throw anymore punches.

"They're friends. You know that." Ranma tried to in his usual 'don't care' attitude, though inside he was really wishing that it was the Chinese male Amazon in front of him so that Ranma could fight with him instead.

"How could you let this happen, Ranma?!" Ryouga shouted right into the face of the Japanese boy dressed in the red Chinese shirt. Then, the yellow bandanna-wearing martial artist dropped the hostile attitude and began to quickly walk away. "I have to find her."

Ryouga had known that Mousse and Akane were getting chummy together but he hadn't thought it was really anything to worry about, but she'd gone on some trip with the Chinese boy. Ryouga could have accepted the fact if she had chosen Ranma. That would have been expected. He knew of her feelings for the pig-tailed boy but he didn't know where Mousse stood with Akane really, besides just friendship. Did that mean she was replacing him with Mousse? Ryouga had to check this for himself.

"Ryouga!! You know you're not going to find her!! Come back and finish this fight! Ryouga, you IDIOT!!" Ranma nearly screamed after his usual rival but it was too late as Ryouga had already disappeared. "The jerk could be all the way to North Pole already." Ranma mumbled to himself and decided that he might as well get that okinamiyaki from his cute fiancee.

The elderly Amazon council woman happened to look up out of her restaurant window and see a certain pig-tailed young martial artist walk right by the building. She looked around the place and saw that Shampoo was absentmindedly taking a customer's order and didn't notice a thing. Cologne could see her great granddaughter was lost in her thoughts. Since the Tendo girl had left with Mousse, Shampoo had been contemplating things. She still chased Ranma at least once a day but a few weeks ago, her great granddaughter would used the girl's absence to use every trick in the book to get Ranma to fall in love with her. These days the chases were only half-hearted attempts, only once during the afternoons when she had deliveries to make. Maybe Shampoo was finally seeing that Mousse wasn't such a bad match for her.

The Japanese boy would be a great addition to the Amazons but his mentality did not work with their culture and the old ways. He refused to submit to anyone and in the Chinese Amazon way, women were superior and men were weak. Ranma was the exact opposite and he would make a mess of things. Mousse was a good fighter. The proof being that he was able to keep up with Son-in-Law for the most part and that was without being able to see for the most part. If his eyesight hadn't been so had, the old Chinese lady was sure he'd give Ranma a hell of a fight. Mousse was a sensitive soul though. He wanted Shampoo to fall in love with him and not make her feel obligated to marry him, so he had never challenged the purple-haired girl of his dream to a fight for her hand. The Amazon way saw it as just a weakness though and Shampoo agreed.

Allowing her to chase Ranma did have benefits for both sides. If she succeeded, she would bring in good, strong blood into the tribe and the 2 together would bear some of the greatest warriors the Amazons had seen. If she failed, there would be consequences and her heart might be broken for a little while, but Shampoo needed to learn that there would be others who were better but that was how you improved yourself, by facing against them. Shampoo was stubborn and proud, sometimes so much so against her own good. The old Amazon chuckled to herself. Her great granddaughter would never admit she was wrong. It would take a lot to open her eyes but in just a few short weeks, Akane had already started making the changes and people were unknowingly following it. Shampoo, being one of them, so maybe her great granddaughter still had a chance at things.

There was a small chance that a few members of the Council would try to stick with the old rules and try to give the death punishment but the tribe needed to learn to change and adapt with the world or they would disappear as a people. As the oldest person on the Council of Elders, Cologne had a bit of a pull and Shampoo, as the generation's strongest warrior, should be able to avoid it. If they could convince Ranma and his chosen to be honorary members of the tribe, it would be an even bigger bribe to change things. Besides, she hadn't had this much fun in 200 years. Son-in-Law pulled off the craziest stunts and he would only improve in time.

Then again, things could go completely different and Mousse and Akane might somehow fall for each other. The Japanese girl would be a good addition to the tribe also, though that basically meant losing Ranma but even then, she was sure she could persuade him to be a friend of the Amazons. The boy would follow that girl to hell and back. The old Amazon was tempted to shake her head in the hopes of getting rid of the thoughts of politics but she would wait and watch events unfold before her. After all, it was Nerima and something interesting would come along soon enough.

Shampoo was much too immersed in her own thoughts to realize that her great grandmother had been watching her for the past several minutes. She felt odd, as if something wasn't right and she didn't really know how to deal with it. Everything was perfectly normal, as far as normal goes in Nerima, so why was she feeling so bothered for the past week? The Amazon warrior chased Ranma at least once or twice a day depending on how many deliveries she had for the day, though honestly, it wasn't as much fun to do without Akane around to rub it into her face or with Mousse around to get jealous and try to defend her honor. The restaurant was really busy with the schools out for the summer, especially without Mousse around to help bus the tables and whatnot and without his usual compliments about everything about her. The purple-haired girl never realized how much of a boost to her ego it was everyday to hear Mousse just tell her how beautiful she was and how amazing he thought she was.

She wondered what he was doing right now, vacationing with the kitchen destroyer. Was he really enjoying all the sightseeing in America? Was he learning a whole lot about their culture? Cologne was always stressing how important it was to learn about different people and places so as to be able to adapt in different situations. Was duck boy meeting a lot of different people? Were girls talking to him? Was he talking to girls? Was he talking to the obstacle a lot? Was he spending a lot of time with her? When he should be here, helping Shampoo, in the restaurant, complimenting her and not that blue-haired girl who couldn't beat her in a fight.

The young Amazon shook those thoughts out of her head. If she didn't know any better, Shampoo would have thought that she was acting jealous of Akane being around Mousse, but that was utterly preposterous, of course. It wasn't like there was any reason for jealousy. Jealousy meant that she had to feel something for Mousse. Mousse was a childhood friend, that was all, the purple-haired martial artist told herself. It had to be rivalry against the Tendo girl. That made sense. After all, she had Airen's attention and now she had taken blind boy's attention. It wasn't like she missed having Mousse around or anything like that. Well, it was another 2 weeks until they were back. Shampoo would just have to wait for Mousse to come back and she would give him a thorough yelling about how he shouldn't have left all that work for her to do.

"Shampoo! You have 3 deliveries!" The Amazon elder yelled, breaking Shampoo out of her thoughts.

"Yes, Great Grandmother!" She said and hurried over to take the orders.

Shampoo hadn't chased Ranma yet today so maybe if she saw him out there, she would have a lil fun with him. As luck would have it, it looked like she wouldn't have to go out of her way to see him tonight.

The small bells that hung gave a cheerful ringing as the door that they were hung on opened. The waitress immediately looked up, ready to seat the new customer at one of the few open tables left but realized that it wasn't needed as the person just strolled up to the counter and plopped onto the stool closest to the grill. The cook had also immediately noticed who had just walked into the building and had a big smile on her smile.

"Hi, Ran-chan. Want your usual?" Ukyo asked him in her usual cheerful tone and with practiced ease, she immediately began to whip up a super-large okinamiyaki with the works on it.

"Thanks, Uc-chan. You're the greatest." Ranma told her with his mouth already watering at the smell of such great food being cooked right in front of him.

As soon as it was done, she flipped it right onto a plate and whipped it over to her childhood friend and now fiancé. Ranma immediately began to chow down on it. Ranma had been coming into her restaurant everyday since school had been let out and since Akane had left on her trip, he'd come in sometimes twice or even three times a day. He always sat down on the stool closest to the grill and she always made him Japanese pizza. As he ate, the brown-haired girl tried to talk with him. She asked him about his martial arts, any movies he'd seen yet and so on, but the Japanese boy in the red Chinese clothes would only give brief answers and continued eating. As soon as he was finished with the first one. There was already another ready for him to eat. Before when he had come to her restaurant, he usually had more to say to her, though it was usually complaining about Akane and how far she had booted him that day. The okinamiyaki chef always lent a comforting ear, take his side about things and giving her general support to him.

With the usual subject of conversation gone, Ukyo had hoped that he'd talk to her about other things but it seemed like neither of them had much to say. She'd even tried suggesting that they hang out with each other like go out for ice cream or go to the mall and other things like how he and Akane did, but he always declined. Ukyo couldn't figure it out. She was the cute fiancee, so why didn't Ranma want to spend more time with her? Then again, it was probably better that he didn't want to. As much as she was willing to spend time with him, going out for the day or just the afternoon involved her closing her restaurant. Everyday for the past week, she'd been counting her drawer and even with the summer boon in customers, after buying needed ingredients, she wasn't making as much money as she should have and Ukyo couldn't figure out why. Maybe she ought to have a look over her finances just in case, but the spatula girl would have to think more of that later since Ranma was still right in front of her.

"Thanks, again, Uc-chan. You're such a great cook, unlike Akane." Ranma said feeling quite happy with a full stomach. "I'll see you either later today or tomorrow. See ya' Konatsu."

"Of course, sugar." Ukyo said as her heart melted from the smile Ranma had just given her. "You're always welcome into Uc-chan's."

Konatsu watched as Ukyo fawned over Ranma as he left. The young man dressed-as-a-young-female wasn't frowning, as he was still grateful for how Ranma had helped freed him, but he wasn't smiling either. He just wasn't sure how to handle the situation really. The male taught-to-be-a-female ninja didn't blame Ranma and he certainly didn't blame Ukyo-sama. Konatsu knew that Ranma loved Akane and she loved him. Everyone knew that. It was so obvious but most everyone seemed to be in such denial about it, especially Ranma and Akane themselves. Lately though, Akane seemed not so concentrated on the whole fiancé situation and it seemed to drive everyone into a frenzy about it, but then she left, taking Mousse with her, and it was like a vacuum had occurred. Ranma wandered around Nerima, seeming like he wasn't sure what to do with himself anymore and Ukyo tried everything she could to get Ranma's attention but it seemed to work less and less. In the meantime, Ranma kept eating okinamiyaki. Would Ukyo ever see what was in front of her eyes? Konatsu loved her though and he would wait for her as long as it took for her to see it.

Ranma left Ukyo's restaurant, feeling quite full and not sure what do with himself for the rest of the afternoon. He was Saotome Ranma though and this was Nerima that he lived in. Of course, the Kami wouldn't let him have an afternoon all to himself.

"Ranma darling! I have this afternoon free and I thought we could spend it together on a date!" A very recognizable voice called out to him as she flashed her ribbon around.

"Hiya Kodachi." Ranma said, cringing at the presence of the Black Rose. It wasn't that he was afraid of her or anything like that. After all, Saotome Ranma wasn't afraid of anything . . .except maybe cats. It was just that Kodachi was downright scary at times. She was Kuno's sister after all. He was already trying to sneak off and of course, the Black Rose followed. "I don't really have time to chat, so I'll catch ya another time. See ya!"

"Ranma, my beloved!" Kodachi cried out after him. "My brother has already given his blessing so long ago!"

Kodachi could only stand there and watch as Ranma ran off. She had been searching him out everyday since that other girl had gone away on her trip and yet, she was nowhere closer to him than before. With the Tendo girl out of sight, the Black Rose figured she'd be out of his mind and it would be a cinch to snatch up Ranma-darling, but the situation was turning out to be quite different. For the moment, the gymnast decided she would go home and think of another way to approach matters.

Having no where else to be at, the young pig-tailed martial artist had also headed back home. After all, there was the chance that there was something in the mail or the phone might ring tonight. Besides, dinner wasn't that far off. It was a pleasant walk back to the house until the young Saotome got to the house as he realized that Kuno was knocking on the front door.

"Didja' forget that Akane ain't at home for anotha' 2 weeks, Kuno?" Ranma yelled out to the upper class man dressed in his typical Samurai outfit.

"Saotome, you cur, unlike your heartless self, my soul is in mourning for the distance that has been placed between the goddess Akane and I." Kuno replied.

Before he could spout out anymore though, Ranma threw another inquiry at him. "Well, what are ya doin' here then? And it better not be after . . ." Not sure of how to refer to his female side, Ranma left the rest of the sentence unfinished.

"I am here to see Tendo Nabiki." Kuno declared. "Announce to her that I am here."

"Whatever, Kuno." Ranma replied. He then opened the front door and yelled for Nabiki but there was no answer.

Soun and Genma were sitting on opposite sides of a Go board in the living room and looked up at the 2 teenagers in the front hallway.

It was Soun who answered. "Nabiki has gone out with Kasumi and won't be back til much later." When he looked back down to the game board, Soun was understandably heartbroken when he realized he was no longer winning. Genma had a very innocent look on his face as he tried to console his friend on the pitfalls of lady luck's whims for games.

"Forgive me for my intrusion." Kuno said to the patriarch of the Tendo family and politely bowed out of the house.

Truth was that Kuno wasn't exactly sure why he had found himself to be at the Tendo house and was glad for the quick getaway. With Akane gone and the pig-tailed girl in disappearance, there was no business to be had from the middle Tendo sister so the young samurai-wannabe hadn't any dealings with her for the past week. For whatever reason, he'd has this odd urge to see the Tendo money-mercenary when he woke up this morning and found himself heading to the Tendo household for no apparent reason. Kuno figured he might as well go home. He should be training for whenever Akane did get back from her trip and he'd be able to show off his prowess to her.

Genma took his eyes off the Go board to see his son walk into the living room and plop himself in front of the television. Ranma had been doing that a lot lately. It was as if he just wasn't sure what to do with himself and had taken to watching TV. The boy seemed unable to find enough interest in doing anything. He'd even lost a bit of his passion for the art. Father and son still sparred every morning but the younger simply finished the fight as quickly as possible and went back to bed shortly thereafter. Genma was almost certain it was because of the absence of a certain short-haired girl but wasn't sure how to go about turning things around so that the 2 might finally unite the schools. Unfortunately, the sometimes panda-man would have to consider things later as it seemed that he was no longer winning the game.

Soun was quite satisfied with how things were going though. Not only had he been able to turn the board around to his advantage when his friend had looked away but the household in general had taken a turn for the better. When his wife had past away all those years ago, the household had lost its spark. It had taken a long time for him to get over his love's death and in that time, the girls had been forced to grow up quickly and though it had been years, their lives had still been in recovery when his old friend and his son had breezed into town. Genma and Ranma had brought excitement and liveliness back into the Tendo household. At least, Soun thought they had. Then suddenly Akane had started a change in her life, which started a domino effect on Kasumi and they eventually knocked this new thing into Nabiki. It had been a long time since he had felt his girls so open and relaxed, but his youngest daughter always did have such an effect on people. She got it from her mother and he was glad to see that spark return to the family. Perhaps it would make an impact on Ranma and the schools might be united at last. That would be planning for another day as the doorbell was being rung and needed to be answered.

It was Shampoo with their dinner delivery. "Nihao! Kasumi already say put on tab."

"Thank you, Shampoo." Soun said he grabbed the food from the purple-haired delivery girl.

As soon as the food was out of her hands, the Chinese girl launched herself at her fiancé and tried to get as much bodily contact with him as possible. Ranma could only freeze as he tried to think of a way out of the embrace without putting his hands in the wrong places, as such an act would only encourage Shampoo even more. So how was the poor boy to get the crazy girl off of him? Usually Akane would punt him into the air and though it sucked being beaten on, it was a quick way to get out of Shampoo's hugs without having to worry about anymore retribution. Ranma hadn't realized it til now just how much he had relied on Akane to break these lil hug fests up for him.

It was time to utilize a Saotome secret technique of the Dying Swan. Ranma carefully freed his hand and pointed towards the front door. "Hey Shampoo! I think someone stole your other delivery!"

Shampoo automatically looked over at the door and suddenly remembered that she had already done her deliveries. Airen had distracted her! By the time she looked back, Ranma had already run upstairs. Unforunately, Shampoo was no longer allowed upstairs in the Tendo house and Great Grandmother would get really angry if she broke that agreement with the Mercenary Girl. It was time to get back and help clean up the restaurant for the night. There was still the next day to get her hands onto Airen.

Ranma sneaked a look around the corner and down the stairs to see if the Chinese girl was still standing. Lucky for him, she didn't see him as she turned around to walk out the door. The Japanese boy in Chinese clothing breathed out a sigh of relief but nearly choked on it in surprise just as the phone rang again. Remembering none of the Tendo girls were at the house, Ranma went to answer it.

"Hai." Ranma answered.

"Moshi Moshi, Ranma." It was Akane. She was quite surprised to hear Ranma answering the phone but it was almost dinner time in the Tendo household. She was probably in the middle of still cooking and so wasn't able to answer the phone right away. "Is Kasumi around?"

Ranma couldn't help but feel a lil cheered to hear his inazuke's voice. "Moshi Moshi, Akane. Kasumi's out with Nabiki right now."

"Oh, well, I was just calling to check in with her." Akane said, not sure what to say to her forced upon fiancé.

"I'll tell her that you called." Ranma replied easily enough but then he wasn't sure what to say to her after that.

There was a pregnant pause as each tried to think of what say next.

It was Akane who spoke first. "Thank you for the bracelet, Ranma. I really like it."

Ranma couldn't help but blush about the gift had given to the short-haired girl. "You're welcome, Akane. I'm glad you liked it."

"How are things there?" Akane asked hesitantly.

"Things around here are pretty good." Ranma responded.

"Well, I guess I should be . . ." Akane started to say but was then interrupted.

"How's your trip?" The pig-tailed boy blurted out the question. He wasn't quite ready to let her go just yet. It had been too long since he had heard her voice.

"Oh! It's been great so far!" Akane answered. She was slightly surprised to hear her usually jerk of a fiancé be interested in doing but wasn't about to kick for it. "We've been able to see so much of America's sights and do so many different things. I've really been able to get into speaking English a lot. It's been a lot of fun and I've learned so much."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Ranma said kindly though he couldn't help but feel a little disheartened. Apparently she didn't miss being at home at all. She didn't miss having him around.

"I am but I miss home." Akane said honestly.

OK, so she did miss home. That didn't mean she missed having him around though. Ranma reminded himself but he still felt his hopes being raised a little bit. "Kasumi misses having you around."

Akane wondered if Ranma missed having her around but wasn't about to ask him that outright. She had better end the phone conversation before she could say something stupid and stick her back into a bad situation that might break her heart. "I better go, Ranma. Tell Kasumi I called. Tell my father that I'm fine and that he needn't worry about me. Tell Nabiki that I got her a great souvenir."

"No prob, Akane. I"ll tell them." Ranma spoke.

"Thanks, Ranma. I'll see you when I get home in a few weeks. Bye." Akane said.

"Bye, Akane." Ranma said quietly and Akane had hung up the phone.

The boy dressed in the red Chinese shirt stared at the phone. It would be another 2 weeks before he could hear her voice on a regular basis again. It was nice hearing her voice without any anger or sadness in it. Ranma couldn't help thinking that 2 weeks was way too long, but it might be enough time to plan a way for Ranma to do something that might keep any anger or sadness from returning to Akane's tone when she got home.


	9. Akane Returns

Disclaimer: You know, I realized that I was wrong, even if I was rich, I'd probably write fanfics. That still doesn't mean that I own Ranma ½ though.

_AN: peeks head out from under her desk and carefully peers at her computer Um . . .I hope no one is terribly disappointed by how long it took to get this last chapter out. ducks head back underneath quickly, waits a second and slowly brings head back Life got in the way and all that. carefully slides onto the chair in front of the computer My husband is deployed overseas and my daughter is now 11 months old. She definitely keeps me busy but she has a bedtime that she follows very nicely so my nights are more free. Anyway, this is the final chapter. I'm a bit sad about that cause, although so many things got in the way of writing, I did very much enjoy writing it. I still haven't decided whether I want write a sequel but keep an eye out. You never know what may pop up. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I certainly did and I hope everything was worth it for you. And so, for this is your final chance to do so for this story, I hope, dear readers, that you may read, enjoy and review please!  
_

Akane stepped off the plane into the terminal and earnestly began looking around. She hadn't even been able to get a full view of the airport before she was nearly squeezed to death. "Oh, Akane." A familiar voice from a head of long brown hair spoke. "We've missed you so much. Did you have a good trip?"

"Onee-chan, I've missed you and everyone else too." Akane said happily back to her eldest sister. "It was a good trip but it's better to be back home."

Just as the youngest and oldest ones let go of each other, Akane was once again grabbed into a large hug. "Welcome back, little sister."

"It's good to be back, Biki-chan." Akane greeted her with just surprise evident on her face as she hugged her back.

It seemed hugging had become an epidemic. As soon as Nabiki had pulled away, the youngest Tendo was pulled into another embrace by her father as he wept with happiness to see his youngest child. "Oh, Daddy, I'm here now." She reassured him as she hugged him in return.

Ranma stood back and watched the family reunion and couldn't help but feel a little wistful. Ranma wished he could just go up and give the girl he lov. . . cared about a hug but knew he could never dare such an act. Something like that would get out and he'd have at least 3 people out of his blood and the day had only started. The young martial artist wasn't up for that just yet.

When she had finally convinced her father that she was perfectly all right and that he could let go of her, Akane turned to the Japanese boy dressed in Chinese clothes. She considered giving him a hug but decided that it would just end up causing more trouble later. "Hello, Ranma." She greeted him very politely. "How are you?"

"Hey, Akane." Ranma replied easily enough though honestly, he felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his chest. "I'm good. How 'bout you?"

"I'm great, Ranma." The short-haired girl responded honestly and couldn't help but give a dazzling smile. She did feel great as she stared at the young man she couldn't help but love, even though it hurt at times.

"Mousse, it's good to see you too." Kasumi greeted the Chinese boy in the white robe who had stood quietly behind Akane. "Cologne asked that we also pick you up so you'll be coming with us."

"Thank you, Kasumi." Mousse said very politely. "I appreciate it very much."

After everyone gave a quick greeting to the Chinese male Amazon, they grabbed their bags and hopped on the train. There were only a few other people on the train with them and so Akane and Mousse were able to talk about their trip. Kasumi and the rest of the family were almost in awe of how the story was being told. Akane and Mousse whipped back and forth in their conversation, almost finishing each other's sentences at times as they told all that they had seen and done during their trip to the American capital. Ranma simply stood in silence as he barely took in what they were saying. He could only watch Akane as she talked so animatedly and throw an occasional glance at Mousse whenever he interjected his thoughts. He knew that they would end up better friends after spending so much time together during the trip but that didn't mean that Ranma had to be happy about it. At least it looked as if they were still indeed only friends. Ranma decided to stop that line of thought before it got too far.

It wasn't long before the train stopped just a few blocks away from the Tendo home and everyone got off to begin the trek to the house. Mousse parted from their company about halfway there so he could make his way to the Cat Café. Ranma was quite happy to see him go, although he did notice that Akane quieted just slightly with him gone. He hoped it was only cause she was just listening more for Kasumi and Nabiki to tell her the happenings around the house and neighborhood and not cause she was missing the white-robed Chinese boy. Having been forced to carry his inazuke's bags, the pig-tailed boy watched as the Tendo sisters walked a little ahead of their fathers and began chatting with each other.

"I've cooked your favorite foods for your welcome home dinner." Kasumi cheerfully let her little sister know.

"Oh, thank you, Onee-chan." Akane replied. "I'm sure it will be absolutely delicious. It's been fun sampling the different dishes of American cooking but nothing beats your home cooking and I'll be sure to help with the dishes afterwards."

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Imouto-chan. The dishes can sit in the sink for the night." The long-haired young woman said.

"But why?" Akane asked confusedly. After all, it wasn't like her older sister to leave housework laying about.

"Well . . ." Kasumi began to say but was quickly interrupted.

"What our dear oldest sister is saying is that she'll be otherwise occupied with our local doctor instead of staying inside our abode for the night." Nabiki said with only a slightly wicked grin on her face.

"Oh, Nabiki!" It was all the eldest sister could say to the middle sister's teasing tone.

"Oh, really?" The youngest sister nearly squealed in excitedness. "I'm so happy to hear that, Kasumi!"

"Yes, it's our first official date." Kasumi admitted with a flushed smile on her face but then threw a wicked gleam at the girl with the page haircut. "I'm not the only one with a date tonight though."

"Nabiki, you have a date tonight too?" Akane nearly squealed in surprise. "With who?!"

"Kasumi!" Nabiki could only sputter back.

"With that Kuno boy." The oldest sister said triumphantly.

"You must tell me every detail of how both these things came to happen!" Akane demanded to know as the front door was opened and everyone walked into the house.

After having her stuff dropped off into her room, the blue-haired girl nearly ran back to the kitchen to help with dinner being put out on the table and continue the conversation with her sisters.

"Now spill!" She ordered her sisters.

Between the teasing and laughing during the telling of their stories, the sisters somehow got dinner onto the table. Soun and Genma had planted themselves in front of their gaming table. While that day's game was Go, which Soun was usually quite good at, for once he could care less that he was losing spectacularly. All 3 of his daughters were happier than he'd ever heard them since before their mother had passed away. Ranma sat in front of the television giving the impression that he was watching TV while waiting for dinner to be served. While his head was turned towards the television, his mind was directed toward the kitchen. He hadn't been aware of the fact that Kasumi had a date with the good Dr. Tofu and that Nabiki had a date with, of all people, Kuno.

"I almost can't believe it!" Akane exclaimed once the middle sister had finished telling her story. "Kuno came here while I was gone? What's going to happen when he sees me though?"

"I made him promise on his honor that he wouldn't make a move toward you." Nabiki said seriously.

"Does that mean he's finally given up on me?" Akane asked hopefully.

"No, but I'm working on him about that." The older sister let her know.

"I suppose that's a start." Akane acknowledged just when all the food was set out on the table and everyone was seated around it.

It was Nabiki who spoke first. "Well, Akane's finally home. It just wasn't the same around here without you, lil Sis."

"It's so good to have the family back together again." Kasumi agreed smiling.

"We all missed you very much, Akane." The Tendo patriarch interjected.

"Welcome back, Akane." Gendo threw into the talk with his bowl in hand ready to grab the first serving.

"Yeah, welcome back, uh, Akane." Ranma grumbled out and though his head was facing the table, he stared at his forced-upon fiancée from the corner of his eyes.

"Thanks, everyone!" Akane said brightly and everyone began to dig into Kasumi's good home cooked meal.

Through the meal, the girls happily continued their chatter back and forth. Soun interjected his own happy comments whenever he felt like with Genma chiming in with him every so often. The only person who didn't say much was the pig-tailed boy who ate his meal quietly, although he did continue to look at the short-haired girl out of the corners of his eyes. He couldn't take his eyes off her even if he had wanted to. He had missed having her seated right beside him during every meal. Dinner was over before he even realized and though he hadn't eaten as much as he normally ate, Ranma didn't mind too much.

The table was soon cleared and Akane ran upstairs to grab her gifts for everyone. She came downstairs with a handful of gifts but she didn't look as happy as she had been during dinner. She passed out presents to her sister, her father and even Mr. Saotome but had nothing else in her hands. The pig-tailed couldn't help but feel a bit forlorn that the girl he cared about didn't have a gift for him. Akane looked over at the Japanese boy dressed in Chinese clothes and was just about to open her mouth to say something but the door bell rang.

Kasumi immediately went to answer it but the youngest sister interrupted her. "You get ready. I'll answer the door." Akane said firmly, pushed her sister toward her room and went to open the door.

"Hello, Dr. Tofu." Akane greeted the older man.

"Hello, Akane." The good chiropractor answered. "Welcome back. Did you have a good trip?"

"Yes, I did." The short-haired girl answered. "Kasumi is getting ready right now and will be out in just a few minutes. Would you like to come inside and wait for her?"

"Why, thank you, Akane." Dr. Tofu said with just a hint of nervousness in his voice and stepped through the doorway into the Tendo home.

Before the blue-haired girl could close the door, another male stepped toward the front door. "It be the beauteous Akane back from her voyage across the sea."

"Hello, Kuno." Akane said in a dead-panned voice.

"Let me count all the ways that I have missed your most blessed pre . . ." Kuno began to spout but was then interrupted when a hand reached out and grabbed onto his ear.

"Kuno baby, remember that you gave your word." Nabiki nearly hissed at him as she yanked down on the young samurai-wannabe's ear.

"YES!!" Kuno cried out in just a little bit of pain. Hearing his compliance, his ear was released and the kendoist continued talking. "Must you hurt me so, lovely Nabiki?"

"Hello, Akane, Nabiki. Hello to you, Kuno and to you Dr. Tofu." A familiar voice called out.

"Oh, hello, Mousse." Akane greeted her good friend. "What are you doing here?"

Mousse held up a small duffle bag. "I forgot to give you the things that you had asked me to put into my bag."

"Oh, yes, thank you!" Akane said happily as she grabbed the bag out of his hands.

"Why duck boy leave work?!" A high-pitched voice called out.

"Oh, brother dearest, why would you come to the home of Ranma darling and not bring me with you?" Another voice called out, with a slight threat to her tone, as the female person landed on top of the wall.

"A-A-Akane?" Ryouga shyly called out. "Is that really you? I got you some souvenirs from my last trip."

"Hello, sugar." Ukyo greeted Ryouga. "Hiya, Ran-chan! Welcome back, Akane. Is Nabiki around? I need to speak to her about something."

"Oh my! It seems everyone has come to welcome you back home, Akane. It seems we have a party on her hands." Kasumi spoke just as she came up and saw everyone standing around the front door. "Invite them in, Akane. I'm sorry, Akane, that I didn't think to invite everyone for dinner or at least dessert as a welcome home party." She then began to walk back into the house toward the kitchen and talking more quietly." I'll put out the food for everyone. Oh, my! I'm glad I always keep around extra food for these such occasions. Dr. Tofu, do you mind if we put off our date for a little while?"

"Of course not, Kasumi!" The chiropractor answered. Unfortunately, his voice did squeak just a lil bit. "I'll come help you."

"Well, you heard her, people." Akane called out softly as she kindly waved for everyone to get inside.

As politely as possible Everyone made their way into the Tendo home. After all, no one would be foolish enough to try to refuse Tendo Kasumi's hospitality, not even Kodachi was that insane. The youngest Tendo led everyone to the backyard and into the dojo as it was the only open space large on the property that would comfortably hold all of this group. Plus, it was used to taking a beating, in case things got out of hand, as it often did when this certain company of martial artists got together. Without prompting of pay, the middle Tendo daughter walked into the house to inform the 2 fathers of what was happening. Everyone stepped into the dojo and looked awkwardly at each other. They weren't exactly there to welcome Akane home after all but it would impolite to not do so at this point.

"How was your trip, Akane?" The okinamikyaki chef cheerfully asked. She was considered to be friendly one for a reason.

The blue-haired girl, glad for the distraction, answered back and began to tell her a few of the things she saw in America and how different it was compared to life in Nermima. Mousse, since he had also been on the trip began to interject his opinion into the conversation and everyone in the dojo was able to see first-hand how Akane and Mousse interacted with each other so well. Ukyou watched back and forth slightly amazed at how close the two seemed and wondered if maybe Akane might have developed a thing for the white-robed Chinese boy so that maybe she could finally Ran-chan all to herself. Ryouga couldn't help but be worried at the new turn of events and, while silently seething, wondered why Ranma would let such things continue. Shampoo was also silently seething though she was busy trying her best to get her Airen to pay attention to her. Kodachi had no idea what everyone one was so interested in those 2 while she was still in the room but it didn't matter too much to her as she was too busy making sure her hair and make up was perfectly in place so that she could talk to her Ranma darling. Ranma simply stood back and stared at the bag that his forced-upon fiancee held in her hands. He wondered what was in it that Akane had been so happy to have back from Mousse. It was probably some gift the duck boy had gotten her while they had been on the trip together.

"How dare you grab my Ranma darling!?" Kodachi suddenly screamed out as she had finally noticed how Shampoo was clinging to the pig-tailed boy.

"Airen not yours!" Shampoo forcefully replied back.

"Just because you have lost your little duck boyfriend does mean that you are allowed to force yourself upon my Ranma!" Kodachi nearly snarled out and she pulled her ribbon and began to twirl it around.

"So much for a quiet welcome at home." Akane muttered to herself with more than just a sigh in her tone of voice.

Mousse was the only one who had heard her and companionably put a hand on her shoulder to silently console her, as he was probably the only one who knew how much coming home and seeing her family had meant to her.

Ryouga, who had been standing not far from the only 3 who had originally been talking, saw this action and saw red. "How dare you do this, Ranma!" He yelled out and began to charge at boy in a red Chinese shirt. "How could you let this happen! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

Ranma instinctually dodged out of the way of the irate boy with the yellow bandanna. "I ain't done nothing!" He immediately shouted back. Although not exactly sure why Ryouga wanted to fight, Ranma was welcome for the interruption of such a show of such good fellowship between his fiancee and her latest friend.

The pig-tailed martial artist took the fight into the yard so that they hopefully wouldn't damage any of the buildings too much. Shampoo and Kodachi also took their fight out of the dojo, as they had both just settled their damage accounts up with Nabiki and weren't eager to add onto them just so soon. Nabiki had just stepped out of the house and smirked at the chaos that was already ensuing around the house. She had been exactly right in how long it would take before a few fights would break out now that her little sister was home and had just made a tidy little profit. Kuno had been following right behind her and wasn't sure whether his date would appreciate any attempts at sabotaging the evil sorcerer Ranma's chances of winning the battle. The samurai-wannabe decided that since he was indeed here with Nabiki that he should be the gentleman and not interfere this time. As for his sister, well, there were others who better at handling her.

Ukyo saw the middle Tendo daughter step into the dojo and excused herself from Mousse and Akane's presence. Mousse still had his hand on Akane's shoulder in sympathy. He was ecstatic that Shampoo had followed him out there but wasn't happy in the events that happened afterwards.

Kasumi had just walked into the dojo with a tray of glasses and a pitcher of iced tea with Dr. Tofu in tow carrying a tray of slices of pie on separate plates. "I see the excitement has commenced." She said serenely as she began to pass out a plate of pie to whoever was near.

"Don't worry. I always have a first-aid kit handy." Dr. Tofy interjected. His voice was still squeaking occasionally. The tray trembled ominously in his hand but the doctor was able to steady himself with a deep breath.

A sign popped out almost nowhere. "Is that apple pie?" It read. The Tendo patriarch and Saotome patriarch had just come out of the house and joined the fun. Somewhere on his way through the yard to the dojo, he had been splashed by a bit of water from the koi pond.

"Yes, it is." Kasumi answered and handed each of them a plate and fork.

Kasumi continued to pass out a plate of pie to everyone that wasn't already busy fighting and they began to calmly chat about this and that. Everyone kindly joined into the conversation and eventually even the people who had been fighting saw that there was some of Kasumi's good cooking out and decided to come back into the dojo.

Akane had hardly touched her pie but put her plate back on the tray. "The pie was delicious but I'm still pretty full from dinner, Kasumi. I think I'll go to bed now. The trip back wore me out a little bit."

"Of course, Akane." Kasumi said and gave her littlest sister a hug before she left to go back into the house.

"Thank you all for coming." Akane spoke to everyone before she left with the bag that Mousse had brought back to her still in her hand.

"I must be going as well." Mousse said. "There are some things that must be finished at the restaurant before I can retire for the night."

"Shampoo go home too. Shampoo have early deliveries." The purple-haired girl interjected and she began to hop away on the rooftops leaving her fellow Amazon in the dust so that he was forced to simply chase her.

"Well, I have to get going too." Ukyo let them know, as she had finally finished her business with Nabiki. The normally upbeat cook had a disconcerted look on her face as she made her way home.

Nabiki, having put her calculator away, shook her head at whatever she just figured out, then proceeded to grab Kuno by his wrist and began to walk out of the yard. "The pie was delicious, sis. Kuno and I have places to be tonight. Don't wait up for us!" The kendoist had just enough time to put his plate down and wave goodbye before he was dragged out of sight past the gate.

"We should be going too." Dr. Tofu spoke up. As he glanced at the brown-haired female beside him he couldn't help the glaze that fell over his glasses but was determined to finish off what he was saying. "The movie will be starting soon."

"Oh, my. Yes, of course." Kasumi agreed and began to gather the empty plates and glasses.

"Don't worry about it." Her father told her firmly. "I'll take care of these. You enjoy your date." The eldest Tendo sister was about to argue but Soun was already pushing her out of the doorway along with the chiropractor. With more than just a literal push, he may have a new son-in-law before the year was out.

The only person still left, besides the persons who actually lived at the house, was Kodachi. "We are alone at last, Ranma-darling! We can finally be free to be together."

"Uh, um . . ." Unfortunately, the pig-tailed martial artist, though was extremely quick with his punches and kicks, wasn't that quick with his mind so he decided to give up and just run. It was a tactical retreat after all. There was nothing wrong with that and when dealing with the Black Rose . . .well, there were just some people who were better off being left in the dust.

Kodachi quickly got on her feet and began to chase after her beloved. "Come back, Ranma-darling. You're forgetting to carry me in your arms!"

"Ranma, you get back here!" Ryouga got up to also partake in the chase. "We're not done yet! Take your beating like a man!"

It was hours later and the moon was out before Ranma finally made it back home to the Tendo house. Ryouga had made a wrong turn somewhere at the beginning of the run and was probably in South America by that time. Kodachi had given pursuit for quite a while. If it wasn't for the fact that Mr. Turtle wasn't feeling well and that it was time for his medicine, the young Japanese man dressed in Chinese clothing would still be out running from that insanity. He quietly hopped onto the roof and suddenly heard some shuffling just below him. He was about to hop onto the ground to see who could possibly still be awake at this hour but was halted by the sound of a voice.

"Ranma, is that you up there?" Akane's voice called out.

"Uh, yeah, Akane. It's me." The young Japanese man answered. Honestly, he thought to himself, who else would be on the roof of her house? Then again, it was a valid question since Akane seemed to be number 1 on the list for the kidnapper of the month club and they did tend to use the roof as a highway.

"Stay right there." She told him as she began to climb up on the roof.

"Uh, hey, Akane." The boy in the red Chinese shirt spoke nervously. "Just give me a sec and we can talk inside the house."

"No, it's all right." The short-haired girl said easily. "It'll take just a minute. Just give me a hand, would you?"

The pig-tailed young man reached to grab his forced-upon fiancee's hand and easily pulled her up the rest of the way onto the roof. It was no wonder that she needed a lil help as she still held that small duffle bag that Mousse had brought to her earlier that evening. Upon seeing said item, Ranma couldn't keep a scowl off his face at the reminder that he was no longer the closest one to her. It was a few minutes before either said anything to the other.

"It took you a while to get away from Kodachi, huh?" Akane said, simply to break the silence.

"Yeah." It was all Ranma could respond with.

Akane reached into the bag and pulled out the only object that was apparently in it. She allowed the bag to drop onto the roof and held out a box for Ranma to take. "I got this for you." She informed him quietly.

"What is it?" Ranma asked curiously with a near god smacked expression on his face.

"Open it, dummy." The blue-haired simply ordered.

Not finding any fault with those words, The pig-tailed martial artist did so. "What is it?" He asked as he held up the circle with the leather intertwined in the center with feathers hanging off the bottom.

"It's a dream catcher." Akane explained. "Native American tribes used to hang them above their beds to catch bad dreams as they slept." At this point, she took a quick breath and forced herself to continue, though it was a bit hesitantly. "I know that you have a hard time sleeping sometimes so I thought it was worth a try."

"Um, thanks, Akane." Ranma replied with just a hint of softness in his voice. It was a very thoughtful gift. It wasn't so unusual for Akane to give out thoughtful gifts but usually they just threw their gifts at each other in a haphazard way, hoping not to make the other person angry for whatever reason.

"You're welcome." She answered with a soft smile on her face. "Well, I need to get back into bed. I really am tired. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, have a good night." The young man-who-somehow-stayed-a-young-man-all-day-long replied.

Ranma watched Akane as she carefully climbed down the roof and back through her bedroom window. Just as her head disappeared from sight, the young martial artist made a decision. With the dream catcher still in his hand, he walked over the edge of the room and ducked his head down toward his fiancee's room.

"Hey, Akane? Can I ask you something?"

_AN: DON'T KILL ME!! ducks head back underneath her desk and stays there I did say that this story was never meant to be an ending to the series. There is a reason why the title of the story is called 'A Hint of Change' and not 'Actual Change.' I know, it's a cruel distinction. I wrote this story simply cause I wanted to understand some of the emotions the characters were going through, especially what Akane and Ranma were feeling and how those feelings might develop. _

_I know the main question is–what is Ranma going to ask Akane. Well, I do know what he's going to ask her but I'm not telling. It's not that difficult to guess. If you want to know for sure, well, the only way I'm telling is if I decide to write the sequel. No, this isn't a way for me to beg for more reviews or anything like that, although I welcome anything anyone wants to say as long as it's constructive. I'll remind anyone that I wrote this story more for my own enjoyment than anyone else's. I had things planned out this way for the most part. Ah, who knows, perhaps if someone were polite enough, I might write an epilogue to this story, explaining a little bit more. shrug_


	10. Epilouge

Disclaimer: I've stated for the last nine chapters that I don't own Ranma ½ so what makes you think I might suddenly decide to claim them as my own?

_AN: Happy Holidays, people! As has been kindly asked of me, here is the epilogue. Consider, it your holiday present. Is anyone as jazzed as I am that my last chapter turns out to be #10? Hee hee. Anyway, I had a few different ways as to how I was going to do this. I was soooo tempted to be evil and just have the entire post be just the question that Ranma answers, nothing else--not even Akane's answer, but I figured I was already being a bit cruel. And yes, I'm planning a sequel, which is why this chapter isn't as substantial as it could be. The 1st chapter won't be posted for a while. I'm not trying to let months go by between chapters like with what has already happened. The plan is that I'm going to write at least 4 or 5 chapters ahead so that even if I'm not able to take time out to write, I can still post like once or twice a month and not let things hang in the ethereal unknown of abandoned writings. If anyone is curious to how far along I am in the writings, check my author page. I like to write quick blogs there as it helps me keep track of things. Hopefully it won't be long before I'll get more written and will post the new story. Until then, hope everyone has a great holiday, great new year and of course, read, enjoy and review! _

Akane was startled but she was able to answer him fairly calmly. "Sure, Ranma, do you want me to come back on the roof?"

"Uh, no, that's not necessarily." Ranma replied. He held onto the dream catcher in front of him, almost as if it could shield him. He wasn't sure what he thought he needed protection from. It wasn't like the dream catcher would do much good if she got angry enough to chuck one of her dumbbells at him.

Akane stayed standing as she watched Ranma literally hanging upside down in her window. She didn't think it was a very comfortable position, at least not for a long period of time. "Do you want to come inside?" She asked.

"Um, no, that's OK." Ranma refused. The pig-tailed boy didn't think it would be safe to step into his fiance's bedroom.

They stared at each other for a few minutes as they each tried to gauge the reaction of the other. Ranma was nervous. He wasn't sure if Akane would take what he would ask the wrong way. Akane was just curious as to what Ranma wanted to ask her.

It was her curiosity that won out. "What is it that you wanted to ask, Ranma?"

"Di . . .d, did you miss me, Akane?" Ranma hesitantly spoke.

Akane's eyes widened in absolute surprise. Of all the questions that her forced-upon fiancé could ask, that one was definitely not on the list of the likely. The young Japanese man stared at the blue-haired girl as she stood there in shock. He didn't think it was that big of a deal. Well, he had hoped it wouldn't turn into a big deal.

The young Japanese woman realized that she was being a bit dramatic about things but honestly, it really was a surprise for her. The question just hit a little too close to her own heart. She contemplated how to answer. The short-haired girl could do the usual-get offended and deny everything. It was the safest way to reply but she was no longer willing to go that route. Was she willing to tell him the truth though and risk the pain and humiliation that might come? Akane just wasn't sure. 'Well,' she thought to herself, 'nothing left but to gain.'

"I did, sometimes, miss you." Akane carefully replied and hurriedly added another part to the sentence. "As a friend." She nearly cringed at herself for adding it on since it wasn't completely true. She missed him as more than a friend but she just wasn't ready to admit anymore than that.

It was Ranma's turn to be in a little bit of shock. Although he did ask, he just hadn't really expected Akane to actually give a straight answer. She did tack on that last part, which made it a little more acceptable to how they used to respond to each other, but it had been said. Ranma figured that he ought to give a little too. "I missed you too, Akane. As a friend."

Akane's face broke out into a happy smile at her fiancé, who perhaps wasn't so forced on her.

"Well, see ya, Akane!" Ranma spoke and pulled himself up and away from the window.

The blue-haired girl could only shake her head at the pig-tailed boy's antics and close the window after him.


End file.
